EXPERIENCE

Richard S. Elliott is International Trade Counsel, based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. His practice consists of regulatory and advisory projects, internal investigations and enforcement matters involving international trade, investment and finance matters. His areas of practice include sanctions and export controls, CFIUS reviews, anti-bribery and anti-boycott restrictions, defense industrial security matters and international trade and investment disputes.

Richard has handled CFIUS reviews and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters for three decades, and has four decades of experience working with sanctions and export control issues. He has managed a number of international internal investigations, particularly in connection with alleged violations of anti-bribery and sanctions laws. He regularly assists a broad range of companies and financial institutions in addressing sanctions, anti-bribery and national security issues in connection with international acquisitions and securities offerings, including the provision of due diligence assessments, advising on contractual and structural matters and obtaining regulatory approvals. Richard is recognized in Chambers USA and Chambers Global as a leading lawyer in the International Trade: Export Controls & Economic Sanctions category as well as the International Trade: CFIUS Experts category; he is recognized as one of the world’s leading practitioners in Who’s Who Legal: Foreign Investment Control 2024; and he has been named one of the 25 most respected sanctions lawyers in Washington, D.C., by Global Investigations Review.

From September 1981 to August 1984, Richard served as an Attorney-Adviser in the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Legal Adviser. Previously, he participated in a joint degree program between Columbia Law School and Princeton University, graduating with a J.D. from Columbia and a Master in Public Affairs from Princeton. At Columbia, he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a member of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law and the Columbia Society of International Law; at Princeton, he concentrated in International Relations at the School of Public and International Affairs. As an undergrad at Trinity College, Richard was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, earned honors in political science and received a number of prizes in economics and political science.