2021 Virtual Year-End Review of Import/Export Developments

Paul Burns has over 35 years of experience advising clients on all aspects of international trade and commodity tax, including significant experience advising on Canadian customs and export control matters. Paul obtained his LL.B. from the University of Western Ontario. For many years, he served as the practice group coordinator of the International Commercial Practice Group in Baker McKenzie's Toronto office.

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Brian Cacic assists clients on all substantive Canadian customs, trade sanctions and export controls issues, including complex customs valuation, tariff classification, rules of origin, marking, remissions and drawbacks. He assists clients to develop and implement effective customs and trade compliance programs, and he regularly conducts internal compliance reviews, prepares voluntary disclosures, and represents clients in Canadian customs compliance audits and enforcement actions. He also provides trade compliance and regulatory advice in connection with corporate restructurings, mergers and acquisitions, and advises clients on trade-related legislative matters.

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Kerry Contini is a partner in the Firm’s Outbound Trade Practice Group in Washington, DC. She has served as co-chair of the Firm's Pro Bono committee for several years and has managed award-winning pro bono work involving Baker McKenzie professionals in North America, Europe and Asia. She has written on export controls and trade sanctions issues for several publications, including The Export Practitioner and Ethisphere. Kerry is a co-chair of the Export Controls and Sanctions Section of the Association of Women in International Trade. She joined the Firm as a summer associate in 2005 and became a full-time associate in 2006.

Nicholas F. Coward focuses on outbound trade compliance matters including the extraterritorial application of US law, particularly US export control laws, anti-boycott regulations and trade sanctions/embargoes. In addition, his practice covers issues of corporate conduct such as the application of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and foreign bribery laws. His practice includes international transactional advice, the design and implementation of corporate compliance programs, compliance audits, internal investigations and representation in enforcement proceedings.

Helena Engfeldt helps companies around the world expand their businesses internationally especially by taking privacy law compliance global. She is a partner in Baker McKenzie's International/Commercial Practice Group in San Francisco. She is licensed to practice law in California, New York and Washington.

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Ross Evans is an Associate in Baker & McKenzie Services Limited, London office.

Aleesha Fowler is an associate in the Washington, DC office. She represents domestic and international corporate clients on a range of litigation and compliance matters, including criminal and civil investigations brought by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission. She regularly advises clients on white collar criminal matters, and has significant experience in handling investigations that raise issues under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the US False Claims Act. Aleesha's pro bono practice is focused on providing legal advice and representation to incarcerated clients seeking parole and other available remedies.

Terry Gilroy is a partner in the New York office of Baker McKenzie and a member of the Compliance and Investigations Practice Group. Prior to joining the Firm in 2018, Terry served as Americas Head of the Financial Crime Legal function at Barclays. Terry advises businesses and individuals on white collar and financial crime issues and has significant experience conducting investigations relating to compliance with the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and related bribery and corruption statutes, economic sanctions regulations as administered by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the Bank Secrecy Act and related anti-money laundering (AML) regulations and statutes. Terry spent six years on active duty in the United States Army as a Field Artillery officer.

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Tristan Grimmer is a partner in Baker McKenzie's London office. He is a member of the Compliance & Investigations and the International Trade and Competition practice groups. Tristan joined the Firm as a trainee in March 2004, qualifying in March 2006. He has advised on parallel investigations by authorities in the United States, Switzerland, Brazil, Japan, and has spent time working in Baker McKenzie's Chicago office. Tristan was recently named as a "Next Generation Lawyer" in the UK Legal 500 2017 directory.

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Rod Hunter, a partner based in the Washington, DC office of Baker McKenzie, practices trade and investment law. He previously served as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and senior director for international economics at the National Security Council (NSC), the White House office that coordinates trade policy and supervises CFIUS. In that role, he managed CFIUS cases, including negotiating resolution of the most sensitive cases. A recognized expert in the field, he has testified before Congress during the legislative process leading to recent amendments to CFIUS’ authorizing legislation. Previously, in addition to coordinating U.S. trade policy at the White House’s NSC, he served as senior counsel at the US Trade Representative’s office, where he litigated cases before the World Trade Organization. He has also taught trade law and policy at the University of Virginia’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy and has testified before the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Earlier in his career, Rod practiced regulatory law in Brussels, Belgium for a decade, served as a judicial clerk to Judge Boyce F. Martin, US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, served as an associate to Chief Justice Sir Anthony Mason, High Court of Australia and served as an assistant to Senator John W. Warner, US Senate.

Adriana has over twenty years of experience in customs and foreign trade matters. She joined Baker McKenzie in 2001, became National Partner in 2005 and a Principal in 2018. She has prior experience working as legal director of Rules of Origin, Customs Procedures and Safeguards in the Mexican Ministry of Economy where she participated in the negotiation of several free trade agreements (FTAs) and in the first dispute settlement resolution cases initiated by Mexico against the US under the NAFTA. Adriana has been ranked a leading practitioner by Chambers and Partners at Chambers Global and Chambers Latin America as well as Legal 500 for ten consecutive years. She was an associate in our Guadalajara and Washington, D.C. offices and currently Heads the Firm’s North America International Commercial Practice Group in Mexico City.

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Alexandre Lamy joined Baker McKenzie in 2009 and currently works in the Firm's International Trade Practice Group. He assists clients with sanctions and export controls (Export Administration Regulations (EAR); International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR)) and he advises clients on corporate compliance matters. Alex contributes regularly to Baker McKenzie's Sanctions & Export Controls Update blog.
Since August 2021, Alex has been the co-chair of the ABA Section of International Law’s Export Controls & Economic Sanctions Committee. Prior to that appointment, he served on the steering group and as a Vice Chair of the Committee, starting back in August 2011. Alex has organized multiple events regarding recent developments in US trade sanctions and export controls for the Committee.
Alex was recognized in Who's Who Legal 2020 Edition of its Global Guide to Trade & Customs Lawyers as a "leading individual" in North America on International Sanctions and the publication reported that he "attracts applause for delivering 'a practical service which understands the needs of the business'. His 'ready availability to clients, thorough research and strong presentation skills' are further acclaimed." He was also recognized in the 2019 Edition of the same publication as being "much sought after by clients who praise his 'advice of the highest quality' and add, 'He is technically very good on OFAC sanctions issues and military/dual use export controls.'" Alex was named by Financier Worldwide in, “POWER PLAYERS: International Trade & Sanctions 2021 - Distinguished Advisers.

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Sunny Mann is a Partner in Baker McKenzie's London office and co-leads the UK Compliance and Investigations Practice, as well as the UK International Commercial and Trade Practice. Both these practices are ranked Tier 1 by Legal 500 UK. He has also worked in our Firm's Washington DC, New York and Sydney offices. Sunny also advises many clients on risk matters in India. He advises clients (including numerous FTSE 100 and Fortune 100 businesses) on compliance and investigations with respect to export controls, trade sanctions and anti-bribery rules. The Legal 500 ranked Sunny as a “Leading Practitioner", and as "excellent", with a ‘calm’ and "very practical" approach. The India Business Law Journal also noted that Sunny is "excellent and has deep experience in India". He is a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, the leading institute for post-graduate European studies, where he teaches a course on Corporate Compliance.

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Mr. McKenzie's practice is focused on cross-border transactions and international trade regulation, including: - Export Controls, Economic Sanctions Regulation, Customs and Import Regulation - Integrated Corporate Compliance and Anti-Corruption Compliance: Advisory and Investigations - International commercial and technology development and transfer transactions Mr. McKenzie was articles editor at the Harvard Law Review from 1975-1976. Between college and law school Mr. McKenzie served in the Peace Corps in the northwestern mountains of Guatemala. He joined Baker & McKenzie in 1976. Since that time, he has worked in Baker & McKenzie offices in Caracas, Venezuela and Taipei, Taiwan, in addition to San Francisco. For the past 40 years, Mr. McKenzie has arranged and chaired the annual Baker McKenzie Import/Export Conference, the leading international trade regulation and compliance conference in the West Coast of the United States.

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Bart McMillan leads the Chicago Office’s International Trade Compliance Subpractice within the North American International Commercial Practice. He advises US and non-US companies on international trade compliance matters arising under US export controls, trade sanctions, and antiboycott rules, as well as under US customs laws with respect to classification, valuation, country of origin, free trade agreements, and the protection of intellectual property at the US border. His practice also covers anti-bribery and specialized commercial compliance issues in sales and sales promotion under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), non-US anti-bribery law, and non-US commercial laws. Mr. McMillan has been practicing with Baker McKenzie for the entirety of his legal career, and during 2004 he was located in the Washington, DC office. He is a frequent speaker on international trade compliance matters at seminars, conferences, and company training events. While pursuing his J.D. at NYU School of Law, Mr. McMillan was Staff Editor (1997-98) and Associate Editor (1998-99), New York University Law Review; and he participated in a semester exchange to the Central European University (Budapest) (Legal Studies Dep’t).

Maria Piontkovska is an associate in Baker McKenzie's Los Angeles office. Maria advises clients on reducing anti-corruption compliance risks stemming from operating business in emerging markets and handles internal investigations and related interactions with law enforcement authorities.

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Jennifer Revis is a partner in Baker McKenzie's London office and co-leads our EMEA Customs Team.
Jennifer focuses her practice on the public regulation of international trade, particularly in a wide range of customs compliance issues. She regularly advises clients on import matters, including customs valuation, rules of origin, and classification. She has worked with clients designing and implementing their compliance programs, policies, procedures and risk assessments, and assisting them in customs audits. She has significant experience in managing global customs projects and disputes, particularly in the area of customs valuation (transfer pricing; assists; royalties). Jennifer also advises on FTAs and trade remedies matters.
Jennifer has been consistently recognised as a "Leading Individual" for Customs & Excise and “Next Generation Partner” for Trade, WTO Anti-Dumping And Customs. Clients describe her as "an outstanding customs lawyer and litigator with fantastic experience. She is also easy to work with and leads her team with aplomb", "without a doubt, one of the best customs lawyers in the business (…) with an exceptionally deep knowledge of customs valuation concepts, as well as considerable experience applying those concepts in a variety of jurisdictions."
Jennifer has been on secondment to the UK customs authorities (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) in their tax and excise litigation department and to the Firm's European Law Centre in Brussels.

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Eunkyung Kim Shin regularly advises multi-national companies on complex international trade, regulatory compliance, and customs and import law related matters. She also counsels on cross-border compliance and commercial issues.

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Ben Smith is a Partner in Baker McKenzie’s London office and a member of the firm’s Compliance & Investigations and International Trade practice groups. Both these practices are ranked Tier 1 by Legal 500 UK. Ben joined the London office of Baker & McKenzie in September 2007. He has also worked in Baker McKenzie's San Francisco and Brussels offices, as well as on secondment to the legal and compliance teams at three FTSE 100 UK plcs. The Legal 500 UK ranked Ben as a “Rising Star”, noting “Ben Smith is a pleasure to work with. Professional, knowledgeable and always ready to assist with practical solutions.”

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Alison Stafford Powell co-leads the Firm's West Coast Trade Compliance team. She has considerable experience counseling US and non-US companies on managing trade compliance in the areas of export controls, trade and financial sanctions and US anti-boycott laws. As a dual-qualified lawyer, she provides practical advice to help non-US companies reconcile US and foreign trade regulations and on the extra-territorial impact of US trade restrictions. Chambers USA quotes clients' praise for her being "extremely knowledgeable, responsive, commercially strong and understanding complex issues well." Legal 500 describes here as an "outstanding specialist." She has worked in the Firm's London, Washington, DC and Palo Alto offices since 1996.

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Virusha is a partner and head of Tax in Baker McKenzie's Tax Practice Group in Johannesburg. She has over 20 years' experience in tax matters relating to customs, excise and international trade.

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Iris Zhang is an associate in the Firm's International Commercial & Trade Practice Group. Iris regularly assists multinational companies on sanctions, customs and export control compliance as well as other international trade matters. Before joining the Firm, Iris worked in a Chinese law firm in Beijing on regulatory compliance and risk controls relating to Chinese anti-bribery laws and US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

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