When WorldECR launched its awards for excellence in export controls and sanctions practice in 2015, we said that the awards should ‘recognise outstanding work, vision, best practice, commercial benefit to the company, and contribution to international security, of organisations and individuals working in the fields of export control and sanctions compliance and non-proliferation.’
Writing in the journal that year, I said: ‘It is time that the excellent work carried out by export control compliance professionals is recognised and celebrated – not just by this community but also by colleagues in other departments in their companies and beyond. Equally, the contribution of specialist export control and sanctions law firms and consultancies should not go unnoticed. Their contribution to their clients’ business success and also to fighting proliferators deserves championing.’
Much has changed in our world since then, but our mission statements have not. Today, as in 2015, we are pleased to celebrate the contribution of the individuals and organisations listed below. Congratulations to you all. You help to make the world a safer place.
A big thank-you from us to everyone who put forward a submission and nomination, and to our panel of judges. Your input and support are very much appreciated.
Mark Cusick
Publisher, WorldECR
(All reviews © D.C. Houghton Ltd 2021)
The results
PRACTITIONER OF THE YEAR
Winner: Barbara Linney, BakerHostetler
Since joining BakerHostetler in early 2019, Barbara Linney has built a diverse team of dedicated sector specialists with the ability to provide value to clients across the full range of export and sanctions matters. Under Barbara’s leadership, the team has developed a collaborative culture that enables it to work seamlessly with specialists in other practice areas, including white collar, M&A, intellectual property, cybersecurity and government contracts, to ensure the best possible representation of clients. Strong leadership skills and commitment to clients and the trade compliance community make Barbara a worthy winner of this award.
Barbara’s international practice incorporates complex export controls work, economic sanctions matters, foreign investment review and national security. Her clients come from a wide range of industries, notably defence, aerospace, oil and gas, maritime, technology and medical device manufacturers. Licensed to practise law in three countries (USA, Canada and the UK), Barbara often handles cross-border regulatory matters.
Her commitment to the international trade and national security community extends beyond her legal practice. She is a past president and the current pro bono general counsel of the Association of Women in International Trade (WIIT) and the WIIT Charitable Trust. She also serves as pro bono general counsel of Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE) and the WIFLE Foundation. In addition, Barbara is a Co-Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of International Law, National Security Committee.
A full and international workload is the order of the day. One recent engagement saw Barbara lead the firm’s representation of a multinational designer and manufacturer of microelectronics in a multi-year internal review of compliance with export controls, filing several supplements to voluntary disclosures before three export control agencies, and guiding the client’s efforts to identify past violations and implement corrective actions. Barbara and her team led the client through review and correction of export classifications of hundreds of parts and related technology and their recommendations regarding corrective actions resulted in substantial improvements to the company’s automated export compliance systems. Notwithstanding a high number of potential violations, the team secured No Action letters from the DDTC and the Census Bureau in connection with two of the disclosures. Just one of many satisfied clients. Congratulations, Barbara!
Runner-up: Nabeel Yousef, Freshfields
Nabeel Yousef is a partner in the DC office of Freshfields where he leads the firm’s sanctions and export control practice. In the four years since Nabeel joined Freshfields’ Washington office, he has transformed its sanctions and trade practice and led the rapid growth of this group, which now represents multinational clients on their most mission-critical matters. Though just four years old, his practice now competes, and takes work from, established US firms.
Within the firm, Nabeel is cultivating a class of associates who are developing leading-edge sanctions and export control knowledge, providing them with critical insight into how to grow and maintain relationships with key regulators.
Nabeel is also a staunch advocate for diversity. He takes the time to mentor diverse associates and advocates for their advancement within the firm.
Nabeel is on the advisory board for, and provides pro bono legal advice to, the Covid-19 Ventilator Project. The Project started as a non-profit company to design, test, and deliver emergency ventilators during the pandemic. In a short time, it has produced a prototype, started validation testing, and garnered support from major international corporations, as well as state and federal officials.
This increasingly busy international sanctions and export control practice services clients from around the world. Two examples are advising British Telecom on export controls and trade matters, particularly in connection with the US Commerce Department’s Entity List restrictions on Huawei, and giving advice to a syndicate of 22 global financial institutions and three export credit agencies on US and EU sanctions and export controls issues relating to the US$13 billion project financing of the Amur Gas Processing Plant, the largest gas processing plant in Russia and one of the biggest in the world.
In a short space, Yousef has put the Freshfields’ DC team very firmly on the map.
Honourable Mentions
Guy Martin, Carter-Ruck
Guy Martin spearheads UK law firm Carter-Ruck’s International Law practice. He has specific expertise in the law relating to economic sanctions, and his work is at the forefront of the field of challenges to asset-freezing measures or ‘targeted sanctions’. He has acted in some of the most high-profile sanctions matters in recent years, including for the late Hosni Mubarak and his family and for Saudi businessman and philanthropist Sheikh Yassin Kadi Abdullah Kadi.
The eight-year legal battle concerning the widely publicised and landmark sanctions cases of the late former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and his family related to EU restrictive measures imposed upon them in 2011 in the wake of the Arab Spring. In autumn 2018 a judgment from the General Court on sanctions designations in 2016, 2017 and 2018 went against the Mubaraks. Guy and his team subsequently filed two powerful and high-profile appeals to the highest court in the European Union, the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU). These appeals raised significant and novel legal issues relating to International Human rights law (IHRL) and EU law. The CJEU in December 2020 annulled the sanctions, ruling that they were unlawful from the outset; and following petition from Carter-Ruck, Hosni Mubarak and his family were later removed from the EU’s and the UK’s sanctions lists. He continues to lead the team in ongoing proceedings for the annulment of further sanctions imposed on various members of the Mubarak family by the EU Council.
Suresh Joseph, Edge Group
Suresh Joseph, an international trade management professional with 17 years’ experience in export control, sanctions, and best practices in business, is Senior Manager – Trade Compliance at EDGE Group. EDGE is a conglomerate of 25 entities with a revenue of over $5 billion and 12,000 employees, established in the United Arab Emirates to build and develop capabilities in autonomous systems, defence equipment, communications and technology development and provide maintenance repair and overhaul services for military aircraft of the UAE Armed Forces. EDGE Group companies use defence products, technology and services from US, Canada, UK and EU countries – the export compliance issues are many in this role and Suresh’s achievements are impressive.
In just two years, he has successfully established a trade compliance program for EDGE, conducted customised training programmes for employees (nearly 700+ employees attended the sessions directly and via MS Teams), performed investigations in support of a disclosure, and launched a corporate-level trade compliance policy.
With strategic as well as organisational responsibilities – developing strategies for trade compliance risk management for EDGE assets, reviewing and identifying EDGE Group companies’ compliance obligations, conducting assessments and audits on the effectiveness of the compliance programme and reporting the findings to EDGE leadership – Suresh provides the foundations for his organisation’s manifold compliance efforts.
Aleksandar Dukic, Hogan Lovells
Aleksandar Dukic is a partner at law firm Hogan Lovells. He has long been providing practical, industry-specific advice on how to navigate complex US regulations to ensure compliance with Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, US export controls, immigration, and USA Patriot Act anti-money laundering obligations.
His practice and client base are truly international. He has represented more than 35 companies in the context of their proposed initial public offerings of shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE). Here, he assessed the applicability of US, EU, UN, and Australian economic sanctions and export controls to the clients’ business in response to Hong Kong regulators’ questions and prospectus comments regarding these laws.
Among matters not deemed confidential, he provides ongoing export control and global sanctions compliance advice to Aldevron, LLC, a biological science company that develops and manufactures genetic elements, and advises Valeo, a France-based international automotive parts supplier, on the full range of export control issues relating to its worldwide business operation, products, and technology. His representation includes reviewing Valeo’s portfolio products and technologies to assess the export control implications under export control laws and regulations for Valeo’s export and import activities.
Other matters that add to a busy practice include counselling universities on US export controls requirements for research institutions, and global financial institutions and (re)insurers on transaction-specific assessment of US sanctions issues under a variety of OFAC programmes.
