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A month after his confirmation as director of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, Paul Rodríguez is leaving the state for a role in the Biden-Harris Administration.

Rodríguez will immediately begin serving as deputy general counsel to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, which has played a critical role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, as Rodríguez has at the DCA over the past year.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has named Kaitlin Caruso as acting director of the division, effective immediately.

“Paul Rodríguez has led the Division of Consumer Affairs with remarkable skill, agility, and determination, protecting consumers from those who would prey on them and working to ensure New Jerseyans have access to health care when they need it most,” said Grewal in a statement Jan. 20. “Throughout the COVID-19 public health emergency, Paul has demonstrated true leadership during a time of crisis, bringing out the best in his staff, expanding the capabilities and scope of the Division, and fighting to promote equity and protect the most vulnerable. We will miss him and his commitment to his home state, but I know he will be a great asset to the Biden-Harris Administration and to all Americans.”

Prior to being appointed to lead the DCA in 2018, then as acting director, Rodríguez served as acting counsel to the Mayor of New York City, as a projects specialist for U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg, and as an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in New York City.

Over the last year, the DCA has initiated emergency programs to significantly expand the healthcare workforce, expanding scopes of practice, eliminating barriers to telehealth, and imposing workplace safety standards, and aggressively pursuing price gouging and purveyors of false COVID-19 treatments and unauthorized tests.

Over the course of his tenure, the DCA has worked to combat the opioid epidemic by suing opioid manufacturers, revoking the licenses of indiscriminate prescribers, setting rules to promote responsible prescribing, and operating the state’s prescription drug monitoring and consumer take-back programs.

The DCA has also filed several major enforcement actions to protect New Jersey consumers, including suing a Medicaid advisory company that abandoned its clients, a series of sham mortgage relief companies and related nonprofits that failed to provide relief for their customers, and subprime auto sellers who sold and repossessed the same vehicles multiple times.

Acting Director Caruso joined the DCA in 2018 as deputy director for policy and strategic planning. She also served for a period as acting deputy director for the office of consumer protection. Before joining the DCA, she chaired the strategic advocacy committee at the New York City Law Department; and previously worked in its legal counsel division, for the New York City Council, in the office of the counsel to the mayor of New York City and as an assistant attorney general in the consumer fraud bureau of the Illinois attorney general’s office.