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MoFo’s National Security Practice Highly Recognized by Chambers USA 2023

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Morrison Foerster’s National Security Group was highly recognized in the recent Chambers USA 2023 guide. Our teams continue to achieve notable success in the Nationwide rankings, with three of our National Security lawyers recognized in the 2023 guide

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Morrison Foerster’s National Security Group was highly recognized in the recent Chambers USA 2023 guide. Our teams continue to achieve notable success in the Nationwide rankings, with three of our National Security lawyers recognized in the 2023 guide:<ul><li>Charles L. Capito, USA – Nationwide: International Trade: CFIUS Experts</li></ul><ul><li>John E. Smith, USA – Nationwide: International Trade: Export Controls & Economic Sanctions</li></ul><ul><li>Brandon L. Van Grack, USA – Nationwide: Political Law</li></ul>Morrison Foerster’s National Security practice, led by John Smith and Brandon Van Grack, provides strategic advice and counseling to clients on a broad range of regulatory, compliance, investigatory, and enforcement matters pertaining to national security. The group was promoted to the Elite category in the USA ‒ Nationwide: International Trade: Export Controls & Economic Sanctions category, with John Smith also achieving a promotion in the recent edition. Additionally, the group were once again highly ranked in the USA – Nationwide: International Trade: CFIUS Experts, with Charles Capito also being promoted in the 2023 guide.The Chambers recognition is among a number of recent honors received by Morrison Foerster’s National Security Group. Brandon Van Grack, co-chair of Morrison Foerster’s National Security and Crisis Management Groups, was <a href="https://www.mofo.com/resources/news/230330-foreign-investment-watch-top-advisor">recently named a Top Advisor by Foreign Investment Watch</a> for 2023. Additionally, Law360 recognized the group as one of its <a href="https://www.mofo.com/resources/news/230117-mofo-national-security-practice-named">2022 Compliance Groups of the Year</a>, and also highlighted partner John Smith as one of its <a href="https://www.mofo.com/resources/news/221003-mvp-mofo-john-smith">2022 Compliance MVPs</a>. To view the complete list of Morrison Foerster’s rankings in the 2023 edition of Chambers USA, please visit the publication’s <a href="https://chambers.com/law-firm/morrison-foerster-usa-5:7854" target="_blank">website</a>.

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Charles Capito is a partner in both Morrison Foerster’s National Security and Government Contracts + Public Procurement practices.In the National Security space, he has significant experience counseling clients on the complex and evolving considerations related to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Charles frequently helps investors and U.S. businesses through every aspect of the CFIUS process, from understanding and allocating CFIUS risk on the front end, to presenting cases before the Committee, to negotiating appropriate mitigation measures, and ultimately to implementing and complying with mitigation agreements after the fact. Charles’ experience includes securing clearances for some of the largest and most sensitive cases reviewed by CFIUS, as well as dozens of more discreet transactions and investments.Charles regularly advises clients on critical regulatory regimes in the national security space. Whether in the context of specific transactions or day-to-day counseling, clients rely on Charles to help them comply with and operate under U.S. export controls, in particular, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). These regimes, especially the EAR, are undergoing noteworthy and complex changes, and now play key roles in other legal regimes like CFIUS. In addition, government contractors with access to classified information and their investors go to Charles to understand their obligations under the National Industrial Security Program (NISP) and, in particular, the sensitive issues presented by foreign ownership, control, or influence (FOCI) in this space.Companies operating in today’s national security space are wise to take a holistic view of the legal environment incorporating not only their legal obligations today, but also the wider geopolitical landscape to plan for the future. Charles speaks and writes regularly on these and other topics in the national security space, and has been recognized by legal publications like Chambers USA and Best Lawyers for his expertise in these areas.Charles is also a seasoned Government Contracts practitioner, assisting government contractors with a wide variety of compliance and litigation issues. This includes the numerous national security issues government contractors face when they are subject to FOCI, manufacture or export defense articles under the ITAR or sensitive dual-use technology under EAR, or are required to understand and comply with recent compliance regimes like Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. Charles also has years of experience on pre- and post-award bid protests before the Government Accountability Office and the Court of Federal Claims, and contracts claims and disputes before the boards of contract appeals, and other judicial and administrative tribunals.  Additionally, he counsels clients on prime- and subcontractor disputes, small business issues, compliance with federal procurement regulations, and government contracts mergers and acquisitions.Charles graduated from Washington & Lee University School of Law, where he served as senior articles editor of the Washington & Lee Law Review. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University.

Charles Capito

Partner

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe class="sticky-video" allowfullscreen="1" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/JqKSMBInKJ0?rel=0" title="Meet John Smith" title="iframe"></iframe></div>John E. Smith, former Director of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), is head of Morrison Foerster’s Economic Sanctions practice, former co-chair of its National Security practice, and a member of the Crisis Management group and Investigations + White Collar group. After serving 11 years as a top official at OFAC and three years as its Director, Mr. Smith brings to the firm unmatched experience in <a href="/capabilities/national-security.html#SanctionsEmbargoes">economic sanctions</a>, enforcement, and national security.Both in the United States and globally, clients turn to Mr. Smith for his deep experience and unique perspective on the complexities and escalating risk of U.S. and multilateral sanctions. He is a trusted advisor for clients navigating significant civil and criminal enforcement actions by U.S. and other government prosecutors and regulators.While serving as a top official at OFAC, Mr. Smith was centrally involved in all aspects of developing, implementing, and enforcing U.S. government sanctions requirements. As OFAC Director, he oversaw every OFAC enforcement case against financial institutions and global operating companies.  Mr. Smith played a pivotal role as OFAC moved to the center of our nation’s response to the world’s most complex and challenging national security and foreign policy crises, working closely with other governments and multilateral agencies and the private sector.Mr. Smith has leading expertise on U.S. sanctions, anti-money laundering (AML), and export controls cases and policies. While serving at OFAC, he worked closely with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue major sanctions and export controls enforcement matters, including significant civil and criminal penalties against major global actors and noteworthy cases against malicious cyber actors. He has overseen the U.S. government’s economic sanctions efforts, imposing sanctions on heads of state, countries, and illicit actors, conducting enforcement actions against dozens of major financial institutions and companies around the world, and developing innovative sanctions enforcement policies to address evolving U.S. national security priorities.Under his leadership as a top official at OFAC, Mr Smith:<ul><li>Supervised the investigation, preparation, strategy, and settlement of dozens of major enforcement cases for hundreds of millions of dollars involving apparent sanctions and export control violations by global financial institutions and corporations; </li><li>Led the development and imposition of some of the most significant sanctions ever involving Iran, Russia, North Korea, Syria, supporters of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction proliferators, malicious cyber actors, transnational criminal organizations, and narcotics traffickers; and</li><li>Acted for a period as the Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI), overseeing economic sanctions, illicit finance, and AML efforts by OFAC and other TFI components, including the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). </li></ul>Prior to Mr. Smith’s 11-year tenure at OFAC, he served as the only American on a Security Council panel of experts charged with monitoring the implementation of UN-mandated sanctions on Al-Qaida and the Taliban. In this role, he led assessment visits to more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Gulf, meeting with top-ranking government officials, central banks, customs and export control offices, and intelligence agencies, as well as many of their financial institutions.Mr. Smith also served as a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the DOJ for five years. During his tenure, he defended U.S. agencies including OFAC in challenges to significant government programs and statutes, including the USA PATRIOT Act, the 2000 Census, and other matters involving highly sensitive and classified information. Mr. Smith acted as the lead trial counsel in defending the first legal challenges to the terrorist asset freezing program implemented by OFAC following September 11, 2001.Mr. Smith has received numerous noteworthy accolades throughout his career, including the Alexander Hamilton Award, the top award given by the U.S. Department of the Treasury (2018); and the Special Commendation for Outstanding Service (Anti-Terrorism), awarded by the DOJ (2002).Before joining the DOJ, Mr. Smith was a litigation attorney at a major international law firm. He also served as a law clerk for The Honorable Anthony J. Scirica on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.Mr. Smith received his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law as a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems. He graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with dual degrees of a Bachelor of Arts in political science and a Bachelor of Journalism.

John Smith

Brandon L. Van Grack helps lead Morrison Foerster’s National Security group and the Crisis Management group. His practice focuses on investigations, criminal defense, and compliance matters involving export controls and sanctions, foreign investment, and cyber incidents. Brandon’s arrival to the firm follows more than a decade of service at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he held multiple senior positions. In those positions, he helped manage the U.S. government’s tools to address perceived national security threats in China and Russia, oversaw every criminal investigation involving sanctions and export controls, and was Chief of DOJ’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit.Brandon’s leadership and breadth of national security experience offers clients in the financial services, technology, artificial intelligence, defense, media, and communications sectors unmatched insider enforcement perspective across the entire national security landscape, including sanctions, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), export control, cybersecurity matters, and FARA.<blockquote>“Brandon sees around corners. He tells me where the government is going.” – Chambers USA</blockquote><h4>Investigations & White Collar Defense </h4>At the DOJ, Brandon led and supervised some of the government’s most significant corporate investigations and resolutions across the national security spectrum. As Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and a Trial Attorney in the Counterintelligence & Export Control Section, he worked on the resolution of almost every significant corporate matter pertaining to export control and sanctions violations in the last decade and is one of the few attorneys to have managed the DOJ’s Voluntary Self‑Disclosure Program for export control and sanctions violations. As Chief of the FARA Unit, he directed scores of investigations of companies for acting as unregistered foreign agents. A selection of Brandon’s investigation & white collar defense experience includes:<ul><li>Obtained closure letter from DOJ for Cole Engineering Services, a subsidiary of By Light Professional IT Services LLC, less than six months after federal agents executed a search warrant at the company as part of a DOJ investigation.</li><li>Obtained declination from DOJ’s Criminal Fraud Section and United States Attorney’s Office for a prominent advertising and marketing agency concerning allegations that the company insiders improperly obtained and used Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds.</li></ul><h4>Sanctions, Export Control, & Foreign Investment</h4>As Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Brandon oversaw every criminal investigation involving export control and sanctions and led the DOJ’s response to the Obama Administration’s rollback of sanctions targeting Iran—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). As a Trial Attorney, he prosecuted more than 30 export control and sanctions cases, including first-ever cases involving North Korea, weapons of mass destruction, and the Atomic Energy Act. In the first Trump Administration, Brandon led DOJ’s review of transactions involving foreign influence before CFIUS and Team Telecom; he also managed the DOJ’s review of transactions before CFIUS during the Obama Administration. A selection of Brandon’s sanctions, export control, & foreign investment experience includes:<ul><li>Obtained declination from DOJ and Department of State for individual accused of violating the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and brokering.  </li><li>Obtained declination from DOJ for CEO of a global technology company subject to criminal and civil investigations into alleged violations of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR).</li><li>Obtained license on an expedited timeline from the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) for a U.S. technology and manufacturing company to winddown operations in Russia.</li><li>Represent global retailer to conduct internal investigation and draft disclosures to civil authorities pertaining to potential apparent violations of U.S. sanctions and export controls laws.</li><li>Developed U.S. sanctions compliance program for artificial intelligence company and advised on implementation, including ongoing support for compliance processes and procedures.</li><li>Led internal investigation and submitted response to OFAC subpoena for software development company regarding potential violations of multiple sanctions programs; obtained cautionary letter.</li><li>Conducted international investigation concerning federal and state material support statutes as well as related sanctions issues for prominent international organization.</li><li>Represented cryptocurrency exchange before CFIUS in one of the largest cryptocurrency-related transactions and first filing involving digital assets before the Committee.</li><li>Represented Kahoot!, a global learning platform company based in Norway, in CFIUS matters related to its acquisition of Clever Inc.</li><li>Successfully petitioned Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for the release of seized property and resolved related export control disclosures with the Department of State with a “no action” letter.  </li></ul><h4>FARA & the Lobbying Disclosure Act</h4>As Chief of the FARA Unit in the first Trump Administration, and the first official to supervise all foreign influence matters across the DOJ, Brandon revitalized and transformed the enforcement of FARA. Following the DOJ’s announcement making FARA an enforcement priority, he supervised a team of 40 attorneys and staff that opened a record number of investigations, pursued a record number of enforcement actions, secured a record number of registrations, and obtained the first civil injunction involving FARA in nearly three decades. Brandon also directed the review of Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) filings for criminal violations and regulated the exemption under FARA for LDA registrants. He also wrote the book on FARA enforcement for the American Bar Association. A selection of Brandon’s FARA & Lobbying Disclosure Act experience includes:<ul><li>Obtained first-ever closure letter from DOJ FARA Unit for a technology company under investigation for potential FARA violations.</li><li>Obtained declination from DOJ for sports organization in connection with a FARA investigation. </li></ul><h4>Cybersecurity </h4>As a long-time prosecutor, including as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, Brandon directed complex cyber investigations, including multiple matters involving state-sponsored cyber attacks. He prosecuted the first person convicted as a cyberterrorist and led the investigation of an international hacking group for identity theft, extortion, and dozens of spearphishing attacks against public and private entities. He also collaborated with other government agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security, to facilitate cooperation from corporate victims and disseminate threat information. A selection of Brandon’s cybersecurity experience includes:<ul><li>Obtained assistance from FBI and local enforcement for a data and analytics firm to disrupt cyber-enabled campaign of former employee targeting customers.</li></ul>During his time at the DOJ, Brandon handled the entire range of national security matters. He led and supervised investigations and prosecutions involving espionage, economic espionage, mishandling of classified information, and theft of trade secrets. He also directed investigations involving treason, mutiny, the Neutrality Act, and the Logan Act, and worked closely with the Department of Education on matters pertaining foreign influence, foreign funding, and national security.Brandon has been widely recognized for his deep experience in handling national security matters, and keynotes and speaks at industry conferences involving export control and sanctions, CFIUS, FARA, and political law. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service (2018), the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Cyber Investigation (2017), the Director of National Counterintelligence’s Award for Excellence (2019), the Homeland Security Investigations Executive Associate Director’s Award for Outstanding Counterproliferation Investigation (2014), and five awards from the Assistant Attorney General for National Security.Brandon regularly provides insight on national security issues and DOJ matters with national media. He is a frequent contributor on cable news, including MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Deadline: Whitehouse and All In with Chris Hayes, ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, BBC News, Sky News and NHK World. He also regularly appears on NPR’s Morning Edition. He has been quoted on a variety of national security topics in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post, among others,Brandon is also a Contributing Editor to the Lawfare blog and co-host of <a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/podcasts-multimedia/podcast/the-regulators-series" target="_blank">The Regulators</a> podcast, where he speaks with key U.S. government regulators in the national security space, including leaders at OFAC, CFIUS, the Bureau of Industry and Security, DOJ, FinCEN, the Office of Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS), and FBI.

Brandon L. Van Grack

National Security: Economic Sanctions + Export Controls, CFIUS, FARA