Founding Advisors

Our Founding Advisors are leading law and advisory firms with deep expertise at the intersection of foreign investment and national security. These firms have worked closely with Foreign Investment Watch on our coverage and editorial strategy, and have provided deep insights on the global regulatory climate. We are deeply indebted to them for their support and guidance. For more information, contact founding editor Scott Cohen.

Click any of the logos below to view the directory listing for that firm:

Directory of Founding Advisors

StoneTurn

StoneTurn, a global professional services firm, works with law firms, corporations, and government agencies on foreign direct investment, national security risk and compliance issues, investigations and business disputes.

From our base in Washington, DC, StoneTurn’s National Security & CFIUS Compliance team draws upon its high-level government expertise and decades of mitigating insider risk issues to assess transactions that would be subject to CFIUS reviews and work with companies to operationalize compliance.

We understand both the government’s perspective on national security and the business realities of how to successfully work with an organization subject to the terms of government mitigation requirements.

Website

www.stoneturn.com

Main Contact

Lindsay Sweeney
(212) 430-3420
[email protected]

Location

New York

Links

LinkedIn

EisnerAmper

We provide independent, third-party audit, readiness assessment, and monitoring with respect to your CFIUS obligations. Our proactive services are designed to be clearly auditable and measurable; and to effectively address potential risk points.

Our CFIUS services focus on three key areas:

Pre-Filing Transaction Risk Assessment
This includes assessments of a company’s operations, subsidiaries, supply chain, corporate security policies and procedures, and information technology.

Readiness
This phase entails developing or revising policies and procedures surrounding each National Security Agreement article of CFIUS.

On-Going Analysis, Monitoring/Audit
Our team will test and validate risk-mitigation controls surrounding data/technology, operations and governance management, and employee compliance and incidence response training.

Morgan Lewis

Morgan Lewis’s international trade and national security practice regularly advises US and non-US clients on the intricacies of the foreign direct investment review process in the United States before CFIUS. From due diligence to engagement with CFIUS government agency members to preparation of submissions, the Morgan Lewis team has a depth drawn from decades of experience.

Our lawyers have been involved in the CFIUS process since 1988 and provide comprehensive, practical advice regarding the sensitive issues related to strategic considerations regarding whether and when to engage with the Committee or submit a notice.

Our team, which includes the former acting chief of DOJ’s Foreign Investment Review Section, has experience in all phases of the CFIUS process across, including mitigation of national security concerns and the development of creative solutions to address CFIUS’s interests while ensuring that transactions can clear the CFIUS process.

Sidley Austin LLP

Our seasoned government relations team is particularly well equipped to manage the political aspects of CFIUS proceedings. We represent institutions involved in some of the highest-profile foreign acquisitions. Working closely with members of Congress and their senior staffers — including at the Senate Banking Committee and House of Representatives Financial Services Committee — we help ease the political pressures placed upon agency decision-makers by focusing on the merits of each transaction. Multiple members of our team, while working at the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice, assisted with the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA) implementation.

Sidley’s team has decades of experience guiding foreign investors and U.S. companies through CFIUS proceedings. Our team includes practitioners who previously held positions as General Counsel of Office of the United States Trade Representative, Deputy Attorney General, Associate Counsel to the President, Principal Deputy General Counsel for the Department of the Treasury, a member of Congress, and Congressional staffers, including for the House Financial Services Committee and a former Deputy Director at the Office of Foreign Investment Review at the Department of Defense.

Website

www.sidley.com

Main Contacts

James Mendenhall
(202) 736-8141
[email protected]

Grigore Alexandru
(202) 736-8156
[email protected]

Location

Washington, D.C.

Links

CFIUS practice
Insights
LinkedIn

Winston & Strawn LLP

Winston & Strawn has an active practice guiding clients through the various national security-related regulatory regimes that apply to foreign investments in the United States. Our CFIUS team is led by Tyler McGaughey, who recently served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Investment Security at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he was responsible for managing CFIUS’s day-to-day operations. During his tenure, Tyler supervised national security assessments, reviews, and investigations for hundreds of transactions. Tyler also reviewed and approved dozens of mitigation agreements, supervised publication of the FIRRMA regulations, and help build the “non-notified” transactions unit.

Winston & Strawn advises clients on how to structure transactions to address potential national security concerns, determine whether transactions require a mandatory CFIUS filing, and where necessary, guide our clients through the CFIUS process. We also work with CFIUS member agencies to resolve national security issues and negotiate mitigation agreements.

Website

www.winston.com

Main Contact

Tyler McGaughey
(202) 282-5306
[email protected]

Location

Washington, D.C.

Links

CFIUS practice
Insights
LinkedIn

Hogan Lovells

When your transaction involves a foreign investment in a U.S. business, you need guidance to assess the national security implications of the transaction. We advise U.S. companies, foreign multinationals, venture capitalists, and global private equity investors, including those from sensitive countries, on national security reviews before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and foreign investment regulators on a global basis.

Our team includes former government lawyers who understand the opaque inner-workings of CFIUS. You take matters of national security seriously. So do we. Safeguard your transactions, investments, and business with us.

Wilson Sonsini

Wilson Sonsini is a trusted advisor to U.S. businesses, foreign acquirers and investors, and financing parties on the full range of CFIUS issues. This includes counseling clients on all aspects of CFIUS, including investor structure and foreign person status, national security sensitivities, whether a CFIUS “declaration” or “notice” is required or warranted, negotiating CFIUS language in transaction documents (whether or not a filing is made), drafting submissions to CFIUS, preparing responses to CFIUS questions, negotiating mitigation agreements and post-closing compliance with those agreements. The team also works with clients to engage other key stakeholders in the CFIUS process, including members of Congress, media, and think-tanks, as needed.

Wilson Sonsini’s CFIUS team collectively has 30+ years of CFIUS experience, working on behalf of companies, investors, trade associations, and the U.S. government. The team is comprised of attorneys who have served as CFIUS officials from multiple U.S. government agencies and from other national security agencies and congressional oversight committees, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, Commerce, and State, as well as CIA, the Army, the Air Force, and the U.S. Senate.

Website

www.wsgr.com

Main Contact

Stephen Heifetz
(202) 973-8802
[email protected]

Location

Washington, D.C.

Links

CFIUS practice
Insights
LinkedIn

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher

The continuing rise in cross-border transactions, in combination with the U.S. government’s attention to national security considerations associated with such transactions, require clients increasingly to turn to counsel for advice in complying with federal regulations designed to protect national security.

For example, review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) will continue to be a critical focus of the U.S. government as national security concerns escalate about investment by certain countries and as foreign investment affects critical U.S. technologies and infrastructure.

Gibson Dunn has extensive experience assisting both U.S. and foreign companies in transactions subject to CFIUS review. In addition, when companies are determined to be under foreign ownership, control or influence (FOCI), we have assisted in obtaining security clearances for company employees and handling other issues to enable our clients to obtain or retain federal government work.

Website

www.gibsondunn.com

Main Contact

Stephenie Gosnell Handler
(202) 955-8510
[email protected]

Location

Washington, D.C.

Links

Int’l trade practice
Insights
LinkedIn

EY

EY cybersecurity service offerings can assist organizations throughout the CFIUS life cycle. EY CFIUS cybersecurity services harness knowledge of industry-recognized cyber practices (i.e., ISO, NIST) and enterprise-level critical information asset identification and apply leading, next-gen cybersecurity EY offerings focusing on the access, protection and monitoring of your organization’s most critical assets.

The thorough and proven EY methodologies support CFIUS readiness, strategic mitigation planning, mitigation implementation and holistic program development, as well as independent audits and assessments of CFIUS compliance.

Website

www.ey.com

Main Contact

Dave Berg
(571) 633-3628
[email protected]

Location

New York, NY

Links

EY Cybersecurity
EY CFIUS Consulting Services

PwC

Government scrutiny of certain inbound US investments, including acquisitions of American businesses, is likely to increase in the months ahead, leading dealmakers to reassess growth strategies and M&A decisions. You’re entering new markets and need to focus on your vision and growth.

Our team understands the landscape and can guide you — from the changing labor laws in your new region, to communicating effectively for success there, to new regulations and local nuances that can mean success. Let our community of solvers untangle the complexity and deliver the holistic, global perspective your new opportunities demand.

Website

www.pwc.com

Main Contact

Fentress Seagroves
(678) 419-4189
[email protected]

Location

New York, NY

Links

U.S. Inbound Deal Services