International Trade and Investment

Fried Frank's International Trade and Investment Practice regularly represents US, EU, UK and international companies, boards of directors, financial institutions, and investment funds in a wide variety of advisory, transactional, investigative, enforcement, and dispute resolution matters worldwide.

Our practice is unique among its kind: it draws upon the firm's long tradition of senior US government and diplomatic service, combines policy insight with deep technical expertise and business judgement, is fully integrated with Fried Frank's preeminent corporate and litigation practices, and is international in its outlook, experience, network reach, and reputation.

Fried Frank's International Trade and Investment Practice operates seamlessly across the firm's offices in the US and Europe. Our practitioners are experts on the full range of issues and legal requirements affecting international business, including:

CFIUS and national security
EU and UK foreign direct investment screening
Economic sanctions (OFAC, EU, HMT)
Export controls anti-money laundering (AML)
Anti-boycott compliance
Anti-corruption
Customs

Our practice addresses the full set of international trade and investment issues that may arise throughout a client's life cycle:

Corporate counseling, compliance programs, and licensing: Our lawyers have wide-ranging experience in the development of comprehensive international corporate compliance programs. Our programs cover US, EU and UK economic sanctions and export control regimes, as well as anti-corruption (including FCPA and UK Bribery Act), anti-money laundering (AML), and anti-boycott compliance. We are highly experienced in analyzing a company's operations and developing comprehensive corporate compliance programs that are tailored to the company's particular compliance needs. In addition, we work with our clients to obtain export licenses and authorizations from US, EU and UK government authorities, and we regularly provide interpretive counseling and guidance on trade controls, anti-corruption, and AML compliance.

Internal investigations and enforcement: The US government has made enforcement of economic sanctions, export compliance, and anti-corruption laws and regulations a high priority. We have deep experience in conducting internal assessments and investigations of trade and anti-corruption compliance. Our lawyers, drawing on their extensive experience in government, assist clients in responding to government inquiries, investigations, and civil and criminal enforcement actions before the economic sanctions and export control agencies – the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), and Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) – as well as the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A), Joint ventures, and transaction support: We are highly experienced in supporting our clients in the assessment of legal and other risks in international markets and in conducting trade compliance due diligence in corporate transactions, including M&A transactions, joint ventures, public and private offerings, lending transactions, and fund formations. We regularly review complex international transactions to ensure that our clients' activities are compliant with US and foreign trade control laws and regulations. We are highly experienced in advising international clients on cross-border FDI filings, including acting in complex cases requiring CFIUS mitigation or other remedies or which have moved to phase 2 investigations by both UK and European regulators.