Economic Sanctions
Akin has an internationally recognized and highly ranked practice advising and representing U.S. and non-U.S. headquartered companies on the full range of regulatory compliance, enforcement, foreign policy, national security and litigation concerns arising out of economic sanctions across multiple jurisdictions, including the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Switzerland, Middle East and Asia. Akin has advised clients across all industry segments, including in key areas of focus for regulators, such as fintech and cryptocurrency, financial institutions, insurance and re-insurance, shipping, oil and gas, aerospace and defense, and health care among others.
Former Government Official Perspectives
Our team includes the former chief counsels of the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), a former OFAC deputy assistant director for policy, a former attorney-advisor in OFAC’s Office of the Chief Counsel, a former Assistant Secretary of Commerce, a former senior sanctions attorney in the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser, three former sanctions prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) National Security Division, and a former Director within the National Security Council.
Multijurisdictional Experience and Reach
We are experienced in U.S., UK, EU (including EU member states), Swiss, United Nations (UN) and other sanctions programs, such as those implemented by individual U.S. states. While some economic sanctions may be complementary across jurisdictions, we are also well experienced in conflicts of laws regarding sanctions, including questions of jurisdiction, blocking statutes and data privacy questions that often arise as well as the patchwork of national implementation of EU sanctions across different EU member states. We routinely represent U.S. and non-U.S. companies in multijurisdictional sanctions compliance, licensing, Specially Designated National and Denied Party issues, and enforcement matters by drawing on the experience of Akin’s U.S., UK, EU and Swiss-qualified sanctions attorneys on the ground in the United States, United Kingdom, continental Europe, the Middle East and Asia, as well as our global network of trusted local country-based counsel.
Our global team is also well-versed in export controls, anti-money laundering and anti-corruption as well as customs laws and regulations, which enhances and complements our sanctions guidance and often is interrelated to questions relating to both financial as well as trade/services-related economic sanctions.
High-Stakes Sanctions Investigations and Enforcement
As part of Akin’s National Security and Government Investigations team, our sanctions specialists represent multinational companies in internal investigations of potential sanctions violations and, when appropriate, voluntary self-disclosures to OFAC, DOJ, and other U.S. enforcement authorities as well as before the United Kingdom’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) and Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI), EU member state regulators and Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). We also assist and defend such clients in responding to subpoenas, requests for information, pre-penalty notices, and charging letters issued by such authorities. Our team’s size, bench-strength, global footprint as well as expertise in effectively leveraging forensic technology enables us to rapidly and efficiently tackle our clients’ most complex, high-stakes enforcement matters.
Foreign Policy and National Security Policy Engagement
Sanctions laws are based on shifting foreign policy and national security interests; our understanding of both the relevant legal and policy considerations at play in each case are critical to navigating a sanctions compliance or enforcement problem. In coordination with Akin’s renowned and bipartisan U.S. Lobbying & Public Policy team, we maintain close communication with key policymakers, legislators and regulators to help shape the foreign policy and national security considerations that underpin the implementation and administration of sanctions programs. We represent clients before EU institutions such as the EU Council and EU Commission in relation to foreign policy, sanctions and national security matters as well as in advancing policy making and regulatory changes through the EU member states’ national governments and their departments. In the United Kingdom, we interact with the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) as well as HM Treasury’s OFSI and the Department for Business and Trade’s OTSI.
Sanctions Compliance-Focused Transactional Matters
Our team is a destination practice at performing due diligence and developing provisions for deal documents to address sanctions compliance and global licensing issues in connection with fund formations, mergers and acquisitions, debt restructurings and other investment management and corporate transactions. Economic sanctions questions on transactional matters may be relatively small and/or confined, but still material and significant to the closing of a deal, especially given robust sanctions compliance representations accompanied in debt, equity, insurance, fund and financial institution documents. Having handled the sanctions due diligence, negotiations, and compliance aspects of dozens of high-value, complex transactions, we have a nuanced understanding of the market-appropriate diligence and deal provisions necessary to mitigate our clients’ risk in an array of contexts.
Sanctions-Driven Commercial Disputes
Our economic sanctions attorneys frequently provide expert evidence in contractual disputes, whether litigated before courts in the United States, EU member states, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, or arbitrated in preferred global arbitration jurisdictions such as Switzerland or Singapore.
