Extensive compliance experience to navigate the sometimes turbulent waters of international trade.
Locke Lord lawyers have extensive experience assisting clients navigating the sometimes turbulent waters of compliance with international and domestic trade (export and import laws), economic sanctions regimes, bank secrecy, anti-money laundering, anti-bribery / anti-corruption laws, and assisting non-U.S. vendors with certain U.S. government contracting regarding technology and restricted items. Whether you are buying and selling goods and services across borders, or acquiring companies and assets that trade internationally, our lawyers are prepared to help you meet every aspect of compliance and due diligence. We advise clients in a wide range of industries, including:
Export & Import Controls
Our international trade lawyers help clients comply with the key categories of regulatory requirements governing exports from the United States including:
We regularly guide clients through the U.S. manufacturing licensing and registration processes for sensitive goods, import and export processes for goods, services, technology and data of all kinds. As instructed, we interface directly with governmental regulators on behalf of clients. We also help clients to comply with banking regulations to facilitate timely cross-border transaction payments.
We can also help companies register with the appropriate governmental agencies to:
Sanctions
Our lawyers provide effective guidance for compliance with U.S. economic sanctions administered by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), including trade embargoes, asset freezes, export/import restrictions and designations of denied parties for trade purposes. Our team closely tracks the evolving restrictions in this area to ensure our clients' ability to conduct business within the full scope of permissible activity. Our lawyers determine whether particular activity may violate OFAC sanctions or coordinate compliance with other sanctions regimes such as EU, UN or UK programs as well as assist in obtaining licenses to transact with embargoed parties. We have helped clients be removed from embargo lists as well as obtain licenses to dispose of assets held in accounts of embargoed persons.
U.S. Customs and Border Control
We represent clients on U.S. import compliance matters, including tariffs, duty drawbacks, country of origin determinations and other trade treaties, ruling requests, classifications, valuations, protest and prior disclosures to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and representation in administrative hearings regarding CBP seizure of goods.
Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/Anti-Money Laundering (AML)
BSA and AML requirements are becoming increasingly important topics for all businesses, and not just financial institutions. Our lawyers provide regulatory and advice and compliance counseling on a broad range of BSA/AML matters, including drafting policies and procedures, assessing a company’s Customer Identification Program obligations, reviewing Suspicious Activity Reports, responding to Section 314(a) requests, assisting with regulator examinations, providing insights into enhanced due diligence measures and other protective measures to avoid interaction with unsavory counter-parties and blocking of payments. A lack of effective policies, procedures and internal controls to detect and report such activity can lead to possible criminal and civil penalties as well as reputational harm. Our lawyers provide critical guidance and support to all types of institutions and individuals regarding their obligations to comply with AML laws, rules and regulations.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
The climate surrounding compliance with anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws has intensified. Our lawyers are experienced in handling the most complicated matters involving the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other international anti-corruption laws, including identifying and addressing corruption risks related to transactions, and a review of FCPA compliance programs.
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FARs)
Our lawyers provide effective advice to help non-U.S. vendors become GSA-scheduled suppliers or to otherwise enter into profitable transactions with the U.S. government as a contractor or sub-contractor.
For all of the above legal disciplines, we provide the following services: