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Areas of Practice
Languages
  • French
  • English
Education
  • University of Toledo Law School, J.D., 1979
  • University of Wisconsin - Madison, B.A., with distinction, 1974

James H. Searles

Partner

Avenue Louise 240, Box 5
B-1050 Brussels
TEL: +32 2 626 0500
FAX: +32 2 626 0510

James H. Searles is a partner in the Brussels office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP.  His practice concentrates on European Union (EU) and international law, focusing on the fields of trade, competition, and environmental law.  His work covers a wide range of regulatory matters that impact cross-border commercial operations.

Mr. Searles advises on EU external trade measures (anti-dumping), customs, intra-EU (“free movement”) trade obstacles and on international market access issues generally, for corporate clients and trade associations in the agricultural, chemicals, motor vehicle, information technology, steel, textiles, sports, and general consumer goods sectors.  Outside the European Union, Mr. Searles has significant international trade experience relating to China and Japan.   

In the trade realm, his anti-dumping case experience is substantial, primarily representing exporters to the EU market and EU importer interests.   This work includes strategic government relations initiatives for the affected industries and advice to the exporting country authorities on dealing with these measures in the bilateral and WTO contexts.  He also deals with EU safeguard and external ‘trade barriers’ measures as well as EU customs matters (preferential regimes, suspensions, classification and valuation).

Mr. Searles advises on matters of WTO-compatibility of EU and third-country trade measures as such and regarding national sectoral and other regulatory measures (e.g., TBT and SPS compatibility).  He provides counsel to industry and governmental agencies on various issues of market access (intra-EU and international, tariffs and NTBs) and trade relations arising in the bilateral, regional and multilateral contexts. 

His work in the competition field relates mainly to cartel and distribution issues in the European Union, also dealing with ‘abuse of dominant position’ and cases involving public undertakings.  His environmental work is largely linked to trade concerns, including policy advice on the WTO trade/environment nexus, negotiation of industry-wide environmental agreements having market access implications and advice on trade implications of EU environment initiatives affecting the chemicals (REACH) and electronics (WEEE/RoHS) sectors.

Mr. Searles’ international legal studies were at The Hague Academy of International Law in The Hague, Netherlands (1978), and the UOP-McGeorge European Law Programs at the University of Salzburg, Austria (1979).  As a Fellow of the Dana Fund for International and Comparative Legal Studies (1980), Mr. Searles started in Brussels with an internship at the European Commission.  He was an associate and then a partner with another major law firm in Brussels from 1986-2003, and joined Steptoe’s Brussels office as a partner in 2004.  He has written and presented on international trade and environment law issues in Europe, Asia and the United States.

Noteworthy

  • Ranked, Chambers Global 2008, The World's Leading Lawyers for Business, Belgium International Trade/WTO
  • Listed in Who's Who Legal for Environment Law and Trade & Customs in 2008

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