International Regulation & Compliance

Steptoe’s team of veteran international regulatory compliance lawyers is actively engaged in counseling clients on the scope, meaning, administration, and enforcement of cross-border regulations that affect international business transactions.  Our team covers the full panoply of regulatory requirements, including:

• Export controls (military, dual-use, and nuclear)
• Sanctions
• Anti-corruption, anti-money laundering, and anti-boycott
• Customs
• Immigration
• Foreign investment regulation
• Industrial security
• Corporate social responsibility

We understand the subtleties of these requirements, provide candid and sound legal advice, and offer solutions that are practical and sensitive to business objectives.  Our lawyers assist clients with building effective internal compliance programs to reduce risk and promote business.  These compliance programs can address one or several of these regulatory regimes, but we also offer integrated solutions that cover multiple regimes. 

Our practice includes conducting due diligence in mergers, acquisitions, financial offerings, and complex transactions.  Our lawyers are frequently engaged by clients to conduct internal reviews, prepare voluntary disclosures, and to defend companies and individuals in civil and criminal enforcement matters.  We work closely with our Homeland Security practice to address data protection, data privacy, and USA PATRIOT Act issues.  We have significant SEC and white-collar capabilities that are increasingly part of corporate compliance, managing enforcement risk, and defense of companies, corporate employees, and board members. 

We also assist clients with these issues under various international or multilateral arrangements, as well as in key non-US jurisdictions, such as within the EU, its member states, and China.  In many of these areas of cross-border regulation, multiple national regimes, compliance requirements and enforcement risks can be present in a single transaction, and thus we provide integrated and comprehensive solutions.  

Local law is an increasingly important element of any effective global anti-corruption program.  Steptoe has created the International Law Guides to meet this challenge.  The Guides offer web-accessible compliance reports that provide corporate subscribers and their employees with detailed information on local anti-corruption laws around the globe. Currently 50 countries are included.  Each country guide is developed by an attorney in the local jurisdiction, is updated each year, and is carefully vetted for clarity and scope.

Select News & Events

• Financial Times, Legal Week Quote Patrick Rappo on DPAs
• Washington, DC Super Lawyers Recognizes 42 Steptoe Attorneys
• Steptoe Adds SFO Joint Head of Bribery and Corruption Patrick Rappo in London
• PaRR Quotes Meredith Rathbone on New SEC Iran Sanctions
• Deciding When to Get Out: Weighing the Pros and Cons of Ending Contracts When It’s Still Legally Permissible to Continue Business, C5’s 7th Advanced Forum on Economic Sanctions
• Status Update on the Implementation of New and More Restrictive Sanctions Regimes throughout Europe, C5’s 7th Advanced Forum on Economic Sanctions
• C5’s 7th Advanced Forum on Export Controls
• Designing and Conducting Effective FCPA Risk Assessments, ACI’s FCPA Conference, New York

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Publications

• EU Relaxes Sanctions against Syria, including Oil Embargo, and Ends Economic Sanctions against Myanmar/Burma
  May 13, 2013
• UK Legislation Permitting Deferred Prosecution Agreements Is Approved
  April 29, 2013
• Supreme Court Rejects Alien Tort Claims Premised on Overseas Conduct
  April 19, 2013
• Automated I-94 Cards: What It Means for Employers and Foreign Nationals
  April 11, 2013

More Publications »