Catherine supports clients with regulatory issues spanning all facets of international commerce, including compliance and enforcement matters involving U.S. customs laws, export control laws, sanctions laws, anti-boycott laws, and foreign anti-bribery laws such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Catherine has advised clients on all sides of international trade operations. On the import/customs side, Catherine has significant experience helping clients with classification and country of origin issues, reviewing and preparing responses to requests for information from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), preparing and filing protests, disclosures, and ruling requests, and resolving a broad variety of additional customs regulation questions. With respect to export controls and sanctions laws, she commonly assists with export classification and other compliance questions involving the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Across all international trade matters, Catherine assists with licensing, investigations, voluntary disclosures, responses to inquiries from regulators, and other compliance or enforcement issues that arise. In particular, her practice involves guiding clients through dealings involving the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), the U.S. Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), and CBP. She also counsels clients on tailoring their business activities and developing internal policies and processes to comply with international trade laws.
Finally, Catherine regularly conducts due diligence into proposed merger, investment and acquisition transactions to ensure compliance with international trade laws. As part of this process, she also reviews prospective transactions for national security concerns that might be raised by the Committee of Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and assists in guiding clients through CFIUS national security reviews.
