Elyse B. Martin is of counsel in Morrison Foerster’s National Security Group. Her practice focuses on U.S. economic sanctions, export controls, and other national security-related matters. Prior to joining MoFo, Elyse served for more than five years in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the principal U.S. agency responsible for administering and enforcing U.S. economic sanctions, during the Obama, first Trump, and Biden administrations. Most recently, Elyse served as OFAC’s Assistant Director for Regulatory Affairs.

Clients depend on Elyse’s extensive technical expertise, as well as her practical, risk-based approach, to assist in addressing their most complex U.S. sanctions issues. She frequently draws upon her OFAC background as well as nearly eight years of private sector experience advising clients on U.S. sanctions matters across a variety of industries and sectors including:

• Oil and gas
• Financial and investment management
• Healthcare and medical
• Logistics
• Chemicals
• Media, information, and technology
• Telecommunications
• Manufacturing

Elyse has represented U.S. and non-U.S. clients in U.S. sanctions matters related to compliance and licensing, investigations and enforcement, and advocacy before OFAC and other relevant U.S. government agencies. She also advises clients on corporate transactions that implicate U.S. sanctions and other national security issues.

Before returning to private practice, during her tenure as Assistant Director for Regulatory Affairs at OFAC, Elyse directed the division responsible for the development, drafting, and publication of regulations to implement new, and amend existing, sanctions programs; the drafting of general licenses to mitigate unintended impacts of U.S. sanctions; and the process to ensure the declarations of national emergencies underpinning U.S. sanctions programs were continued on an annual basis. In addition, Elyse was also a key contributor to the development of new sanctions-related presidential executive orders, regulatory guidance documents, and draft legislative proposals, and she frequently briefed top-level OFAC and Treasury leadership on regulatory issues. Elyse played a critical role in the execution of many of OFAC’s most complex and high-profile sanctions actions during her tenure at OFAC. Her work spanned all of OFAC’s 30+ sanctions programs, and Elyse was particularly involved in the complex sanctions implemented under the Cuba, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela sanctions programs. Prior to serving as the Assistant Director for Regulatory Affairs, Elyse served as the Section Chief for Sanctions Programs Implementation within OFAC’s Compliance division, and as a Sanctions Regulations Advisor.

Elyse received her J.D. from New York University School of Law and her B.A. from The George Washington University. She began her career as an associate in the New York and Washington, D.C. offices of another prominent global law firm, where she advised clients on international trade and national security matters, including U.S. economic sanctions; U.S. export controls; anti-money laundering, anti-boycott, and anti-corruption laws and regulations; and foreign direct investment reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).