He works primarily on shaping federal tobacco control policy by encouraging the Food and Drug Administration to enact strong tobacco control regulations based on its authority under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Desmond also educates the public health and scientific communities about the rulemaking process and highlights opportunities to engage the FDA to create better regulation. He helps the public health community in its efforts to close regulatory gaps and enact novel regulations that anticipate future regulatory issues. Desmond provides legal technical assistance to members of the public health community who wish to participate in the regulatory process and he also provides litigation support to defend tobacco control policies that are challenged by the tobacco industry.