International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP announced today that former senior CFIUS official Justin Huff has joined the Firm as a Partner in its Washington D.C. office.
Before entering private practice, Mr. Huff served as a Deputy Director in the United States Department of the Treasury office responsible for chairing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency committee that reviews cross-border mergers, acquisitions and certain investment transactions for potential national security concerns. Mr. Huff led the review of hundreds of CFIUS filings and conducted in-depth national security analyses on transactions across a wide range of industries, including biotech, agriculture, technology, telecommunication, real estate, energy, and others. Mr. Huff also engaged in extensive inter-agency communications and consensus building with the eight other agencies on the CFIUS committee.
Before his Treasury position, Mr. Huff served as a senior intelligence analyst for the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Coordination at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he managed departmental requirements and briefed White House officials and other federal agencies. He also was a senior intelligence advisor at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, where he worked across federal departments and agencies to rally interagency support for initiatives that enhanced intelligence and information sharing between federal departments and the intelligence community.
After serving in the federal government as a national security official for over a decade, Mr. Huff entered the private law practice at another international law firm. Mr. Huff guided domestic and international clients on CFIUS regulations and their impact on hundreds of high-profile cross-border corporate transactions. Clients praise Mr. Huff for his deep knowledge of the CFIUS regulations and process, and for his ability to find practical and business-sensitive solutions, whether for a pending transaction or in connection with a post-closing CFIUS investigation or review.
Mr. Huff joins an experienced team of Dorsey attorneys who have filed and handled CFIUS notices and investigations on behalf of domestic and international clients in cross-border M&A and investment transactions since 1988. The lawyers at Dorsey have appeared for various clients before CFIUS and, through that extensive experience, have developed excellent, close, and mutually respectful relationships with CFIUS management and staff, including, where appropriate, the ability to meet directly with those officials in Washington, DC.
“With his experience as a senior CFIUS officer, Justin is knowledgeable not only about CFIUS regulations but also about the internal CFIUS processes and practice,” said Dorsey managing partner Bill Stoeri. “In light of the significant changes in CFIUS regulations, including the adoption of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), the expansion of CFIUS jurisdiction, the mandatory filing requirements and expansion of CFIUS’s operations and enforcement, Justin’s expertise and experience will help Dorsey clients with the growing regulatory demands placed on cross-border transactions.”