Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Washington, D.C., offices. June 19, 2015. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/The National Law Journal

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is continuing to grow its CFIUS capabilities, announcing the addition of two former government attorneys Tuesday, three weeks after former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish said he was returning to the firm.

Brooks Allen will join Skadden's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and national security practice July 27 as counsel in its Washington, D.C., office after seven years in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, most recently as assistant general counsel. Tatiana Sullivan will join the practice in September from Stroock & Stroock & Lavan in September as a senior associate. She previously served as the associate director for CFIUS operations and regulatory affairs for the U.S. Department of Defense.

"Over the past couple of years, it's fair to say that the trade landscape has been transformed fundamentally," said Gerrish, a former leader of Skadden's international trade group who is due to rejoin the firm in days after two years in the Trump administration.

He pointed to the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act, the 2018 piece of federal legislation broadening the scope of reviews by CFIUS, as well as to new trade agreements with China and with Mexico and Canada.

"Companies and stakeholders are scrambling to get up to speed," Gerrish continued. "It's a great time to be jumping into the fray."

CFIUS and national security practice leader Michael Leiter added that clients are now attuned to how the new regulatory regime impacts their supply chain management and cybersecurity concerns, among other issues. Non-U.S. countries like the U.K., France and Germany—all home to Skadden offices—are also reviewing foreign investment decisions.

"In the past couple years, We've seen an expansion of an array of national security issues that are affecting almost every company," he said. 

In his time at the U.S. Trade Representative's Office, Allen played a lead role in investigating China's policies and actions on technology transfer, intellectual property and innovation. He was involved in the negotiations of the Phase One trade agreement signed in January, and chaired a subcommittee focused on the country's technology transfer commitments under the deal. Allen's CFIUS work involved deliberations and decision-making on the national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. companies in hundreds of cases.

"Skadden has arguably the top CFIUS and national security practice in the world. They've historically handled the toughest questions before the CFIUS committee" he said, noting that top trade practitioners like U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Gerrish have been integral to the firm.

Before joining the federal government, Allen worked as a senior associate with Sidley Austin in Geneva, home to the World Trade Organization.

Sullivan joined Stroock in September 2019 after spending nearly six years with the U.S. Department of Defense. She served as the agency's associate director for CFIUS operations and regulatory affairs and also worked as a lead export control analyst for the Defense Technology Security Administration. A representative from Stroock did not immediately respond to a request for comment about her departure.

The firm anticipates that the growth in CFIUS and national security capabilities will have synergies for a number of other practices, notably health care, financial services, energy and tax. For example, pharma and medical device clients face challenges with export controls and need to ensure that their pricing, reimbursement and approval practices pass muster across jurisdictions. Global energy clients face cybersecurity issues and restrictions on purchases for adversary nations. 

"There are probably a couple of practices in the firm with which we don't intersect, but not many," Leiter said, adding that he still hopes to add more attorneys to the group. 

"We expect a hugely robust CFIUS pipeline," he continued. "Right now, the trends are more and more demand from our clients. We expect to expand the group, and we're excited about that."