Find Lawyers in America for International Trade and Finance Law
Practice Area Overview
International Trade and Finance includes a range of legal specialties reflecting new global rules for international trade, conventions establishing new standards for companies operating abroad, aggressive national regulation of international business, and disputes among and across nations and cultures. Accordingly, multinational clients now turn to law firms for advice in multiple legal specialties. The most prominent include the following:
International Commercial and Finance Law. Various laws and international agreements govern corporate organization, contractual terms, financing, and the protection of investments in transactions between private parties across international borders.
Trade Remedy Laws. Anti-dumping, countervailing duty, and “safeguards” laws are designed to protect domestic industries from injury by unfair trade practices by foreign producers and surges in imports.
Anti-Corruption Law. The U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribery of foreign government officials, has spawned a succession of international conventions and similar laws in some 140 countries. Worrisome for multinationals, anti-corruption law has produced dramatic spikes in enforcement and penalties in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars against both companies and individuals.
Export Controls and Sanctions. Enforced by a variety of federal agencies, export controls have evolved into a broad, complex network of restrictions on the outbound trade of goods, services, funds, and technology. Exports are restricted for reasons ranging from national security to human rights and may apply depending on the good, service, end-use, foreign person or entity, or country at issue.
Trade Policy. This category generally subsumes any frictions between countries in international trade and investment not directly covered by other laws. Access to foreign markets, violations of WTO rules, barriers to trade, and special trade preferences are addressed by the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office or on Capitol Hill, with dashes of both policy and politics, as well as law.
Free Trade and Customs. Customs duties and tariffs remain central to planning international commercial transactions, as do exceptions or preferences under free trade agreements or other programs. Just as important are the many laws that restrict access to the United States of products that threaten health or welfare. Customs planning, responding to government audits, and assessing the occasional interrelation with other legal issues (such as taxation) characterize this practice.
Intellectual Property Protection. Owners of U.S. intellectual property rights who believe that imports are infringing those rights may ask Customs to bar entry of counterfeit products or litigate their claims before the U.S. International Trade Commission and, if successful, obtain an “exclusion order” barring the importation of all infringing products.
Dispute Settlement. The resolution of international disputes in national courts and before international arbitral tribunals has spread to a broader variety of bi-lateral or multi-lateral tribunals created by international trade and investment agreements.
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Cesar L. Alvarez currently serves as the Co-Chairman of Greenberg Traurig. Prior to this appointment, Cesar served the firm as its Executive Chairman for more than three years, and as its Chief Executive Officer for 13 years. He began his tenure as CEO in 1997, when the firm had 325 lawyers in eight offices and directed the firm through its growth to approximately 1850 attorneys and government professionals in more than 36 locations in the United States, Europe and Asia, including strategic a...
Mary Jane Alves is a partner in Cassidy Levy Kent’s Washington, DC office. Her practice focuses on antidumping, countervailing duty, and safeguard enforcement and compliance. Her experience in unfair trade cases spans a range of industries, such as agriculture, chemicals, electronics, pharmaceutical, energy, textiles, carbon and stainless steel, other metals and minerals, and manufactured goods. Before returning to private practice, Ms. Alves worked for 17 years at the U.S. Internationa...
Yohai Baisburd counsels companies, trade associations and governments in a variety of international trade matters in the United States and globally. Mr. Baisburd’s practice focuses on trade remedy (antidumping, subsidies, safeguards) litigation and import/export compliance and enforcement proceedings. He is recognized by Chambers and Partners for his Customs Law expertise and in The Best Lawyers in America for International Trade and Finance Law. Mr. Baisburd is on the roster of potenti...
Based in the Port City, Charles Baldwin uses his broad experience in cross-border transactions to advise businesses on international law, venture capital and transactional matters. He also serves as Village Attorney for the Village of Bald Head Island, providing counsel on contract, construction, environmental, municipal and regulatory issues. Charles has diverse experience in international and transportation law and is recognized as one of the state’s leading attorneys in these areas. ...
John Baron is the lead partner of the Charlotte office’s Federal and International Tax Group, partner-in-charge of the Charlotte office and chair of the partners committee. His practice is principally transactional in nature, and his clients include both domestic and foreign companies and financial institutions, as well as private equity firms, CDOs and hedge funds. He regularly provides tax structuring advice and renders tax opinions with respect to mergers and acquisitions, structured...
Thomas Beline is a partner in Cassidy Levy Kent’s Washington DC office. Mr. Beline’s practice focuses on advising clients on all areas of import regulatory compliance and policy, trade remedies, and international trade litigation. Mr. Beline regularly appears as lead counsel before the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. International Trade Commission, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of International Trade, and North American Free Trade Agreemen...
Paul Brinkman is an intellectual property partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Paul focuses his practice on Section 337 litigation before the U.S. International Trade Commission. He has won 17 of 19 trials at the ITC and won or favorably settled many more prior to trial. Chambers described him as “great on his feet in court” with a “calm, practical and reasonable demeanor which works well with ITC judges.” His work for plaintiffs has led...
Jim Cannon focuses his practice on diverse international trade matters including antidumping and countervailing duty cases, market access proceedings, export controls and various customs matters. Mr. Cannon assists clients to address import competition, in open foreign markets for their exports or obtain tariff concessions. He regularly appears before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the Court of International Trade, the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Department of...
Jose A. Casal practices in the areas of business and real estate litigation, international litigation and arbitration, and bankruptcy and creditors’ rights. He has handled civil trials in both Florida state and federal courts, and has conducted international arbitrations in both Miami and New York. His representative matters include corporate and partnership disputes, real estate and title insurance claims, receiverships, workout transactions, international litigation, banking litigatio...
Mr. Cassidy focuses on legal issues raised by cross-border business transactions, including antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings, economic sanctions, export controls and customs issues. He is experienced in devising strategies for using trade law procedures, such as the antidumping laws, to achieve business objectives and in resolving disputes between companies and the US government arising from sanctions, export controls and customs laws. Mr. Cassidy served as General Counsel of t...
A trusted adviser with over a decade of experience, Terese Connolly counsels and represents multinational corporations in navigating the wide range of domestic and international labor and employment related issues that arise when managing a global workforce. Terese advises and counsels multinational companies; conducts enterprise risk assessments, compliance audits and internal investigations; and provides training for management and employees on employment law, leave laws, anti-discriminatio...
Mr. Crocker’s practice focuses on regulatory and enforcement aspects of international business. Mr. Crocker has over 35 years’ specialization in sanctions, export controls, foreign direct investment reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), anti-money laundering, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and technology cooperation issues. He has particular expertise in the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations, the Export Administration ...
Howard Cubell is a member and former chair of the Tax practice at Goodwin. Mr. Cubell’s practice focuses on the development of innovative tax strategies for various domestic and international business transactions and collective investment vehicles, with particular emphasis on representing private equity sponsors in acquiring, disposing of and recapitalizing portfolio companies. Mr. Cubell has represented TA Associates in a multitude of transactions over a period spanning 35 years.
Roger focuses his practice on Corporate law and Commercial Transactions. He is experienced with contract negotiations involving joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers/acquisitions, and related agreements, including, e.g., joint venture relationships involving the design, development and supply of various automotive systems and components. He is skilled at drafting and negotiating a broad spectrum of contracts and related documents, with extensive experience concerning automotive supply ...
Eugene Degnan is Of Counsel in the firm’s International Trade practice. Mr. Degnan routinely counsels clients on all aspects of international trade law with a particular focus on anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty law, global trade policy, global trade litigation, export controls and sanctions, and customs. Mr. Degnan has considerable expertise in a variety of industries, including steel, heavy and lightweight manufacturing equipment, agriculture, specialized consumer products, a...
Daniel J. Gerkin is an international trade and national security partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Dan advises on issues involving the transnational flow of goods, software, technology and services, as well as investments in the United States and abroad. Specifically, Dan counsels a variety of U.S., international and multinational companies, hedge funds, private equity funds, venture funds, Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, financial institutions, and i...
Myles Getlan’s practice focuses on international trade and investment disputes and import/export compliance and enforcement matters. Mr. Getlan has significant experience litigating antidumping, countervailing duty, and safeguard disputes before US and foreign administrative agencies, US courts, and dispute settlement panels convened under the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other trade agreements. In both trade regulation and litigation, Mr. Getlan has represented foreign government...
Robert J. Grammig is a partner and leader of the firmwide Public Companies and Securities Practice at Holland & Knight. Mr. Grammig has practiced for more than 30 years in the areas of public company mergers and acquisitions, securities law, general corporate law and international business transactions. He serves on the firm's Directors Committee. Mr. Grammig has represented both companies and underwriters in numerous public company offerings. He has also led legal teams on behalf of acqu...
Steven E. Gross serves as Chairman of Sills Cummis & Gross. He also has served as Chair of the Firm’s Securities and Capital Markets and Banking and Finance Practice Groups. His sophisticated approach to any legal matter has drawn clients to him on a national and international level. Mr. Gross counsels public companies and senior executives in mergers and acquisitions and securities offerings involving multi-million dollar transactions. In addition, he advises boards of directors an...
Bill Hines is managing partner of Jones Walker and a member of the Corporate Practice Group. Passionate about economic and cultural development in New Orleans, across Louisiana, and throughout the Gulf South, Bill has been a legal, business, and civic leader for more than 35 years. Since 2006, he has led Jones Walker through a period of significant growth. During this time, the firm’s client base has expanded to include leading regional, national, and international corporations, banks a...
Mary S. Hodgins is a Partner in the firm’s International Trade practice. She has represented domestic and foreign corporations, state-owned enterprises and foreign governments in unfair trade disputes with the United States before the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. International Trade Commission, the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Ms. Hodgins has also advised U.S. importers with regard to a variety of issues relating to U....
Michael House, a partner in the firm’s Business group, focuses his practice in international trade law. Michael advises and represents clients in all aspects of trade remedy investigations under U.S. antidumping, countervailing duty and safeguard laws, as well as on export licensing and export control matters. He also advises clients in bilateral and multilateral disputes before the World Trade Organization. Michael counsels clients on Customs issues involving import transactions includ...
Adolfo E. Jimenez practices in litigation with emphasis in international disputes. He is the practice group leader for Holland & Knight's South Florida Litigation Group and the team leader for the firm's International Arbitration and Litigation Team. He also practices in the areas of media law, maritime and transportation with extensive litigation and trial experience. In addition to his civil litigation practice, Mr. Jimenez has represented clients in arbitrations administered by the Int...
David J. Levine has more than 35 years of experience practicing international trade law. He counsels clients on import relief, customs, export controls, trade sanctions, anti-boycott, national security reviews of foreign investments and related trade laws and procedures. David advises and represents clients in antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings, trade controls and customs proceedings, national security (CFIUS) reviews of foreign investment in the US, trade compliance diligence in...
Charles Levy focuses on legal and policy issues covering a broad range of international trade, investment, finance, economic sanctions, and export control matters. Mr. Levy is experienced in devising and implementing strategies for using trade laws, international litigation, and international negotiations to achieve business objectives, and in resolving disputes between companies and governments. In the area of international negotiations, he has worked on every major U.S. bilateral, regional ...
George Mencio, Jr. is the firm wide Co-Leader of the International and Cross Border Transactions practice group. He practices principally in the areas of corporate and international law, with emphasis on cross-border mergers and acquisitions and joint venture transactions, dispute resolution, and administrative matters relating to international trade and commerce and the transportation industry. His clients include multinational concerns in the transportation, tourism, mining and agricultural...
Julie C. Mendoza is a Partner in the firm's International Trade practice. She has over two decades of experience skillfully defending a broad range of clients in major cases under U.S. import relief law and in U.S. customs matters. She practices before the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, and other U.S. government agencies. Ms. Mendoza has worked on Sect...
Brady Mills is a Partner in the firm’s International Trade practice. He has extensive experience in antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, and appears regularly before the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. International Trade Commission. Mr. Mills also has significant experience in antidumping and countervailing duty litigation before the U.S. Court of International Trade and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Mr. Mills has represented clients in the steel, p...
Dan's practice includes the capitalization and structure of business entities, strategic and governance issues for public and private companies and structuring and negotiating mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances. He has worked with large and small businesses and regularly advises directors on corporate and strategic issues.
Marshall Page is a partner and co-leads the Corporate Practice Group. Marshall primarily practices in the areas of M&A, private equity investment, joint ventures, project development, and the associated financings, with special emphasis in the energy, maritime, and advanced manufacturing industries. Described by clients as “a very adept, thoughtful and professional negotiator” who is “very practical and creative in finding solutions” as referenced in Chambers USA &...
Will Planert is a Partner in the firm’s International Trade practice. He concentrates on representing multilateral and foreign-based corporations in a wide variety of international trade disputes, including antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, Section 201 (safeguards) cases, anticircumvention investigations, and customs compliance matters. Mr. Planert appears regularly before the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. International Trade Commission, and the U.S. Bureau of ...
Ernie Reigel, who served as chairman of the firm for 15 years, brings to his blue-chip domestic and international corporate clients sophisticated counsel on mergers and acquisitions, as well as other business matters. For over three decades of practice, Ernie has represented both public and private companies in a wide range of transactions, including, most recently, the sale of a publicly held company to a foreign buyer and the purchase of the U.S. division of a Japanese-owned public company ...
Jose E. Sirven is a partner in Holland & Knight's Miami office and co-chairs the firm's Financial Services Practice Group. He has practiced in the financial services, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance and cross-border fields for more than 30 years. A significant part of his cross-border work has involved Latin American and Caribbean jurisdictions, including Mexico and nearly every country in South and Central America. Mr. Sirven regularly conducts complex negotiations and drafts...
Bruce Thelen has a wide ranging practice in international trade and commerce extending to all regions of the world. He provides advice to clients on customs and trade issues addressing regulatory compliance, fines, penalties, seizures and investigations, advance rulings and challenge of US Customs and Border Protection decisions, preferential trade agreements, antidumping and countervailing duties, and product sourcing and supply chain planning to reduce duties. He was recognized by Best Lawy...
Clients turn to Jason Waite for pragmatic counsel on executing international trade and investment transactions efficiently and in compliance with complex laws and regulations, as well as for creative advocacy in Washington to achieve strategic business goals, the development and benchmarking of compliance programs, and when necessary, zealous representation in the defense of enforcement matters. Jason concentrates his practice on the regulatory aspects of international trade and investment. H...
Ken Weigel, a partner in the firm’s International Trade & Regulatory Group, has over 30 years of experience in advising companies on all aspects of international trade regulatory issues. His substantive areas of practice encompass export controls and sanctions, customs, trade remedy proceedings (e.g., antidumping), trade policy and related areas. In these areas, he represents companies before the agencies and the courts in audits, civil and criminal investigations and disclosures; h...
Ambassador David Wilkins is a partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP and chairs the Public Policy and International Law practice group with a special focus on U.S.- Canada interests. He proudly served as U.S. ambassador to Canada from June 2005 to January 2009, appointed by President George W. Bush. Since returning home from Canada, Ambassador Wilkins spent six years chairing the Clemson University Board of Trustees and remains an active member of that board. He also sits on th...
Georges Yates, a partner and chair of the firm's International practice, focuses his practice on: international business transactions and joint ventures; mergers and acquisitions; cross-border business operations, investment and taxation; real estate acquisitions, syndications, finance, leasing and development; and corporate finance (equity and debt). He serves as outside general counsel to a number of public and private companies. He also coordinates strategic relationships between Perkins C...
Scott Zander is a partner in the Corporate Practice Group, where he focuses his practice on tax-exempt and taxable finance structures for governmental, non-profit, and corporate clients. In addition to serving as bond counsel in municipal and corporate debt offerings, Scott represents borrowers, developers, underwriters, and trustees in various corporate, project, and structured financings. He also advises clients on economic development projects in Louisiana. In particular, Scott has extensi...
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