Leigh Hansson is a partner in the Global Regulatory Enforcement group and a leading lawyer in our International Trade & National Security team.
Leigh has significant experience representing multi-national corporations in a wide range of industries, including financial services, defense and aerospace, shipping and maritime, education, manufacturing, life sciences, and energy and natural resources. She counsels clients in the legal regimes that govern international trade including the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”), the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”), Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) and European Union and UK sanctions, money laundering, and anti-boycott issues. Her work in these areas also involves practice before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) and advising companies on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”).
Leigh provides solutions for clients in a variety of contexts, including:
- Performing audits and internal investigations
- Government enforcement and investigation matters
- Conducting merger and acquisition due diligence reviews
- Supply chain management
- Designing and implementing trade compliance programs
- Conducting compliance training
She routinely represents clients in enforcement matters before OFAC, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (“DDTC”), the Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), and other federal agencies. During the last several years, Leigh and her international team have represented clients in hundreds of enforcement matters, including voluntary disclosures and agency-led investigations (subpoenas, directed disclosures, seizures and detentions).
Michael Lowell is the chair of Reed Smith’s Global Regulatory Enforcement Group and a member of the firm’s Global Leadership Team. He is a leading lawyer in our International Trade and National Security Group. Mike has been recognized by Chambers USA and Chambers Global for his work in the export controls arena, and clients praise his “gift of synthesizing and summarizing an incredibly complex area of the law and putting it in layman’s terms to make it digestible and easy to pass along.”
He has an international practice representing clients on trade and regulatory enforcement matters, including export controls, economic sanctions, anti-bribery, and other laws governing cross-border transactions. Mike advises multinational companies from a wide range of industries, including financial services, defense and aerospace, manufacturing, life sciences, and energy and natural resources.
Mike’s practice is focused on the legal regimes that govern international trade, including:
- Sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”);
- Export controls, including the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (“ITAR”);
- Foreign investment controls (“CFIUS”); and
- Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”).
Mike routinely represents clients in enforcement actions and investigations before OFAC, the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (“DDTC”), the Bureau of Industry & Security (“BIS”), Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), and other federal government agencies (Justice, Defense, Treasury, Homeland Security, Commerce, and others). He has represented clients in hundreds of regulatory enforcement matters, including voluntary disclosures, administrative proceedings, consent agreements, and agency-led investigations (subpoenas, directed disclosures, seizures and detentions).
Yves Melin has 20 years of experience as an international trade and customs lawyer in Brussels. He concentrates on trade remedies (anti-dumping measures, countervailing measures and safeguards re-balancing duties), customs laws and procedures, sanctions, export and import controls, and carbon trading and border adjustment. Yves has represented clients in more than 100 trade remedy investigations, and before the EU Courts in more than 30 disputes relating to international trade and customs laws, including in the landmark cases Ikea Wholesale (C-351/04), XinYi PV (T-586/14) and Jiangsu Seraphim (T-110/17) cases. He is part of the firm’s global environmental, social and governance (ESG) practice, with a particular focus on supply chain due diligence and the enforcement of environmental (carbon border adjustment, deforestation, etc.) and labour (anti-slavery, compliance with ILO conventions) standards for goods crossing the EU’s and the UK’s borders.
Yves is a member of the Editorial Board of the Global Trade and Customs Journal (Kluwer), a research fellow in customs and trade law at the University of Liège and a lecturer in Antwerp, Liège and Porto.
Alexander Brandt is a partner in the Transportation Industry Group and the lead member of its sanctions practice, having qualified with Reed Smith in February 2014.
Alex advises insurers, owners, charterers, brokers and traders on all aspects of sanctions-related challenges, providing analysis of applicable legislation, assistance with crucial due diligence work and training.
He is extensive experienced in OFAC investigations, disclosures and enforcement actions and has been centrally involved in many of the most high profile designations, seizures and enforcement actions brought against members of the international shipping community by the U.S. Government. One client notes that Alex is “amazing at quick response time, personalised follow-up, good understanding of customer’s business, pleasant communication, ability to deal on short notice with very urgent and non-conventional situations” (The Legal 500 UK, Regulatory Investigations and Corporate Crime).
Alex also has wide ranging experience drafting protective language for transportation contracts and financing arrangements, and has worked with major lenders and other organisations to develop best-in-class compliance programmes.
James Willn is a partner in the firm’s Energy and Natural Resources Group. He is an arbitration lawyer with more than 14 years’ experience and his practice centres on complex disputes and international arbitrations, largely within the construction, the offshore oil and gas, and other energy industries.
He represents clients in arbitration proceedings under the major international and regional arbitration rules including the ICC, LCIA, DIAC, SIAC, HKIAC, KCAB and DIFC.
In addition to his arbitration experience, James is recognised for his asset tracing and recovery litigation work which is frequently cross-jurisdictional in nature and involves worldwide freezing orders being issued before international courts throughout the world.
James also advises on a range of contentious and non-contentious sanctions issues, advising on all major sanctions regimes (US, EU, UK and UN). He provides project advice to clients navigating international sanctions across a range of sectors, notably within the energy, financial services and maritime industries.
James is listed in the Legal 500 Private Practice Arbitration Powerlist – Middle East Region, and as one of the leading UAE practitioners for dispute resolution in Chambers Global 2022. He is also ranked for UAE construction and dispute resolution: arbitration in Legal 500 EMEA 2020 where clients commented that James ‘is very approachable and easy to work with… he has demonstrated that he can grasp complex and challenging issues and quickly distil them into a simple strategy.’
Manasi Venkatesh is a partner in the International Trade and National Security Group, and assists clients across the world on a variety of regulatory and enforcement issues. Specifically, Manasi focuses her practice on: guiding clients through the review of foreign acquisitions of U.S. entities before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”); anti-money laundering and anti-bribery and corruption related due diligence and compliance issues; and advising clients on customs, exports controls, and sanctions-related matters.
Before joining Reed Smith, Manasi served as an Assistant General Counsel for the Council of the District of Columbia. There, she represented the Council in litigation and advised on legal issues related to the passage of District laws. Manasi also served as a Presidential Management Fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. During that time, she was appointed a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, where she prosecuted criminal cases primarily involving violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
Brett Hillis focuses his practice on helping commodities and trading companies navigate regulatory issues. He has deep experience in advising clients on international trade and sanctions issues. He regularly assists a wide range of clients with their compliance arrangements for financial sanctions, including advising on the sanctions aspects of specific transactions, drafting sanctions clauses, advising on the interplay on sanctions and the EU Blocking Regulation, and drafting sanctions policies and procedures.