Lawyers are essential players in the multilateral trading system. 2 In this chapter, we focus on one particular type of lawyer whose presence in the system has become increasingly prominent over the last sixty years – lawyers working in and for the Secretariats of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Secretariat lawyers, as we call them in this chapter, are active at all levels and across a wide range of activities bearing on the smooth and e; cient operation of the international trading system. Although the story of the ‘legalisation’ of international trade relations since the establishment of the WTO in 1994 is well known, there is still a signiB cant lack of understanding about the role of Secretariat lawyers in the multilateral trading system today, especially outside the international trade law community. In this contribution, we aim to describe the work of Secretariat lawyers, and to show how their work B ts into and supports the broader operation of the WTO. Additionally, we aim to shed some light on how lawyers came to occupy the position they now hold.