Firm News



Updated June 4, 2026

Partner BJ Shannon added a client alert on Section 301 developmentse with the title Client Alert: USTR Moves Forward on Section 301. Download it here.

Partner BJ Shannon made a client alert on customs law available with the title Client Alert: Government and Court Disagree on IEEPA Refunds. Download it here.

Partner Perry Bechky acted as the commentator on a research paper comparing tax policy and economic sanctions at a conference at Fordham Law School on May 15. The conference was organized by the American Society of International Law's interest group on international law in domestic courts.

Our head of the customs practice BJ Shannon provides an update on preservimg refund rights for customs duties after the recent decisions from the the Supreme Court and lower courts in a downloadable PDF titled Client Alert: Update on Preserving IEEPA Refund Rights.

Our customs expert BJ Shannon provides an analysis of the Supreme Court decision V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v United States (No. 24-1287, 607 U.S. ___ (2026)), where it unambiguously ruled that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.

A note in German on the tariff decision in Learning Resources Inc. v. trump from Clemens Kochinke is here.

Partner Bruce Zagaris offers this Whistleblowing News item as a downloadable PDF: U.S. Treasury Department Is Now Accepting Whistleblower Tips on International Violations .

Interested in our history? Listen to this AI-generated BCR podcast.

BJ Shannon Joins Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP to Launch Customs and Import Regulatory Practice

We are pleased to announce that BJ Shannon has joined the firm's Washington, DC office as a partner, where she will lead BCR's newly established Customs and Import Regulatory practice.

Ms. Shannon brings two decades of experience advising companies on complex U.S. Customs and import compliance matters. Her arrival expands BCR's international trade platform and complements the firm's globally recognized practices in economic sanctions, export controls, and CFIUS, allowing the firm to provide end-to-end trade compliance counsel.

Read the full announcement here.

Clemens Kochinke's article Goldrausch im medienrechtlichen Umfeld der USA is published in Kommunikation & Recht, Frankfurt, 2026, 23.

40 years ago, our partners Bruce Zagaris and Clemens Kochinke began to publish the International Enforcement Law Reporter. Bruce has carried the monthly journal into 2025. Look at the AI-generated IELR info video here or listen to this 20 minute IELR podcast.

BCR is saddened by the passing on July 19, 2025 of our beloved former partner Neal E. Krucoff. After growing up in Washington, Neal graduated from the U. of Pennsylvania and then Georgetown law school. He served in the U.S. Army. Neal practiced approximately three decades with our firm. He specialized in real estate and family law. He helped counsel foreign investors in U.S. commercial real estate. His international perspective, his warmth and friendly nature became part of BCR's culture. He was a devoted family man. He and his lovely wife Ella met when they were teenagers. Neal hosted many summer receptions in his home. We will miss him dearly and celebrate his life and professional accomplishments.

INTERNATIONAL ASSET FORFEITURE AND TRANSNATIONAL CORRUPTION

Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP represented the Nigerian Government in a multiyear litigation and negotiation resulting in the transfer of nearly $53 million to the benefit of the Nigerian people. The BCR team was led by Ambassador Philip Kaplan, joined by litigators Bill Coffield and Laina Lopez.

On January 10, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOJ) signed an agreement, in which the U.S. agreed to transfer $52.88 million in forfeited assets to the Federal Republic of Nigeria in recognition of Nigeria's help to the DOJ in an investigation into corruption by bribe perpetrators in the Nigerian oil industry who had laundered more than $100 million of proceeds through the United States and employed them to buy various assets, including luxury real estate in California and New York and the Galactica Star, a 65-meter superyacht. Together with DOJ, BCR filed suit in the U.S. District Court seeking forfeiture of the assets. The Court ruled in favor of DOJ and Nigeria. The US Court of Appeals did so as well, and the US Supreme Court confirmed those rulings by denying a writ of certiorari filed by the bribe perpetrators. Complex negotiations conducted by BCR with DOJ, the Nigerian ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs, and the World Bank, resulted in final approval of the transfer of $52.88 million.

The signing of the agreement to share proceeds took place in Abuja, Nigeria, by the Nigerian Attorney General Lateef O. Fagbemi and U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Richard M. Mills Jr. The agreement provides that $50 million of the recovered funds will be used to expand the Distributed Access Through Renewable Energy Scale-Up project, an electrification project funded, in part, by the International Development Association and implemented by the Nigerian Rural Electrification Agency. The program enlarges access to electricity services in Nigeria with renewable energy generation. The agreement calls for approximately $2.88 million of the forfeited funds to be used towards Nigeria's contribution to the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) and used to support capacity-building for criminal justice sector practitioners and relevant stakeholders in the region, including through activities directed at combating the financing of terrorism, development, and implementation of the counter-Terrorism Academic Curriculum of the IIJ, and institutional support for the IIJ especially in the North, West, and East Africa regions.

BCR also has represented governments and other parties in asset forfeiture cases.

DNA of the law firm: Triggered by our former managing partner Clemens Kochinke, Google produced a fascinating podcast on the BCR DNA in its experimental NotebookLM AI tool. Listen to it here.

Clemens Kochinke has been with BCR since 1 September 1984 and says thanks to clients, colleagues, assistants and interns all of whom have made practicing at the firm for forty years a genuine joy..

Clemens Kochinke's next Country Report USA was published in the German law journal Kommunikation & Recht on November 1, 2023. Topics addressed include artificial intelligence rules, online liability, agency actions and other topics relevant to IT and IP law.

On June 29, 2023, the German American Law Association sponsored an event at the Delegation of German Industry and Commerce for the outgoing and incoming consul generals at the German embassy in Washington and presented them with a copy of the dominant German contracts book (Heussen and Pischel, eds.) which includes the U.S. contracts chapter written by GALA co-founder Clemens Kochinke of Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP.

On November 22, 2022, Bruce Zagaris was featured in a Wall Street Journal video article on the FTX Scandal, its Bahamas locale, and the future of cryptocurrency regulation. Follow this Link.

Partner Clemens Kochinke guest-lectured on American Intellectual Property and Internet Law at Jena University Law School, Germany.



With a heavy heart, we share the passing of our dear and courageous partner, Jim Marketos, on May 13, 2022.
His funeral will be held on May 24 at Saint Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 11:00 am.

We are saddened by the death of author, litigator, adviser to ambassadors, lecturer and colleague Peter Heidenberger, 1922-2021. He covered the Nürnberg Trials and represented Germany before the U.S. Supreme Court, and so much more. Rest in Peace, Peter!

In The News

• Partner Clemens Kochinke's periodical USA Country Report was published in the March 2021 issue of the major German law journal Kommunikation & Recht. It covers the intersection of law, technology, intellectual property and distribution. His Country Report is published in March, June and November.
• FSIA litigator Laina Lopez explains her successful amicus curiae work in Barnet v. Ministry of Culture and Sports of the Hellenic Republic (Greece) in our BCR Journal. Our Legal Assistant Miranda Bannister presents the case in US Appellate Court Rules Greek Ministry Can Protect Cultural Patrimony.
• The Export Control and Sanctions Group of Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP released a compliance guidance on May 19, 2020, titled BIS Celebrates Anniversary of Huawei Sanctions with Gift of More Sanctions.
• The Export Control and Sanctions Group of Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP released a compliance guidance on April 29, 2020, titled Regulatory Alert, BIS Changes Military End-User Rules, Eliminates CIV, Proposes APR Changes.
• Partner Clemens Kochinke featured in German magazine for German law students going abroad: "Forget everything you learned and start from scratch." Law is not math. Stud.jur., Baden-Baden, vol. 34, 1/2020, p. 5

Recent Speaking Engagements

• Perry Bechky will speak about the relationships between economic sanctions and human rights on April 2nd at the annual meeting of the American Society of International Law in Washington.  Registration and the program are available at www.asil.org.  
• Dan Fisher-Owens will be co-presenting a pre-conference seminar on cloud computing export controls at ACI's 10th Global Encryption, Cloud & Cyber Export Controls Conference, March 27-28, 2020 in San Francisco, California.
• Perry Bechky and Dan Fisher-Owens will speak about economic sanctions and export controls, respectively, at a conference on “Importing and Exporting Amid a Trade War.”  The conference will be held at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, OR on March 6.  The event is free.  For more information or to register for the conference:  Lewis & Clark Conference

Recent Publications

• Partner Clemens Kochinke's periodical USA Country Report for March 2020 appeared in the major German law journal Kommunikation & Recht. The report covers privacy, online services, free speech and defamation as well as procedural issues.
• Bruce Zagaris published an article on the abuse of economic sanctions and how it is  undermining the use of financial suasion. You can view the article here
• The Chinese translation of the Business Guide to Trade and Investment will be published imminently.  Perry Bechky contributed the chapter about the jurisdiction of arbitral tribunals in disputes between international investors and host governments (investor-state arbitration).  The book is published by the International Chamber of Commerce and the International Law Institute, and it features contributions from many leading practitioners with a practical emphasis on how international trade and investment law affect businesses. The English version of the book is available online, including from Amazon
• Bruce Zagaris published an article on the politics of international regulatory initiatives followed by U.S. federal and state initiatives to attract foreign investment, including a section on regulatory arbitrage, in particular entity transparency, anonymous foreign investment in U.S. real estate, and automatic exchange of information, and the impact of small jurisdictions in the Carribean. You may view the article here.
• The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and International Law Institute have just published Business Guide to Trade and Investment – International Investment Volume 2, which includes a chapter by Perry Bechky about the types of disputes (jurisdiction) that may be submitted to ICSID arbitration and other fora for investor-state arbitration.
• Perry Bechky published an article about the duty of ICSID arbitrators to make jurisdictional rulings in the Journal of Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals.  The article may be downloaded here.
• Perry Bechky published an article about economic sanctions in the Missouri Law Review.  The article may be downloaded here. 
• Perry Bechky co-edited for the American Society of International Law the second edition of International Law: 100 Ways It Shapes Our Lives.  The publication may be downloaded here.
• Partner Clemens Kochinke's periodical USA Country Report for March 2018 appeared in the major German law journal Kommunikation & Recht. The report covers privacy, online immunity under the CDA, free speech and viewpoint discrimination as well as jurisdictional issues.
• Perry Bechky's article on Microinvestment Disputes has been republished as a chapter in a new book from Oxford University Press on Small & Medium Sized Businesses in International Economic Law, 2017.
• Partners Benjamin Flowe and Daniel Fisher-Owens published an article on Export Control regulations on dual-use technology and software. You can download the article here.
• An article by Bruce Zagaris entitled "Antigua and Dominica make changes to diplomatic passports as proper regulation of citizenship-by-investment continues to be an issue for the Caribbean" was featured in Cayman Financial Review on July 18, 2017. Read it here. 
• Bruce Zagaris was featured as a guest blogger on Money Laundering Watch on July 4, 2017. Read his post, "AML Due Diligence Standards for U.S. Lawyers" here.  
• Bruce Zagaris authors article "Trump yet to play his cards: What Next for FATCA Agreements and Transparency in the US," which appears in the current issue of the STEP Journal. Read the article here.
• On April 26, 2017, Bruce Zagaris authored an article for Cayman Financial Review "U.S. suspension of premium processing for H1-B visas creates opportunities to attract high-tech businesses to the Caribbean: Barbados as a model." Read the article here.
• On January 10, 2017, Bruce Zagaris' article "International Enforcement Cooperation in the Western Hemisphere: A Search for a Better Architectural Framework” was published in Terrorism: An Electronic Journal and Knowledge Base, Vol. V, No. 3 (December 2016). Read the article here.