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30 April 2019
Crowell & Moring is broadening its ability to help multinational clients navigate global expansion and regulatory compliance in China and the Asia Pacific by adding four international trade and global employment lawyers: partners Nicole J. Simonian and Evan Yee-Fan Chuck (picture above), senior counsel Robert Clifton Burns, and counsel Jackson Pai, to its Los Angeles and Washington offices. As part of this move, Crowell & Moring International (CMI), the firm’s global policy and regulatory affairs consulting affiliate, has launched an office in Shanghai with seven trade, transactions, and tax professionals to support global businesses facing cross-border transactional, investigative, policy, and regulatory needs.
The team joins from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. They have worked together for more than two decades, providing advice to foreign businesses that face complex regulatory issues such as complying with antitrust laws and securing approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Simonian will co-chair Crowell & Moring’s international trade group, together with John B. Brew. Chuck, who most recently led Bryan Cave’s China Practice, will become head of the firm’s Asia Practice. Simonian, Chuck, and Pai join the firm’s Los Angeles office while Burns will reside in the Washington office. Their move comes on the heels of former Bryan Cave partner David Stepp’s joining the firm in August.
“We are thrilled to welcome this diverse group of top flight lawyers at a time when international trade issues, particularly in China, are of paramount importance to our clients. Our new team has in-depth knowledge about how best to help clients move goods, services, and people across borders in today’s challenging global trade climate,” said Philip T. Inglima, chair of Crowell & Moring. “Their collective skill set will expand our capabilities and provide clients with the highest level of service to address their global corporate and supply chain needs.”
Nicole J. Simonian is a partner in Crowell & Moring’s Los Angeles office and a director of CMI Shanghai. She serves as the co-chair of the firm’s international trade practice and international employment and global mobility lead, with a focus on the firm’s Asia practice.
Simonian has over 20 years of experience working with companies, from emerging growth to multinational conglomerates, on their market entry and global business expansion throughout Asia (including China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and Thailand), the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe. She has been a strategic advisor to private equity and portfolio companies spanning a number of industries, including aerospace, personal care, semiconductors (assembly and testing), food and beverage, medical devices, retail, apparel and textiles, advertising, outsourcing services, nonprofit organizations, and universities.
Evan Chuck is a partner in Crowell & Moring’s Los Angeles office and is a member of the firm’s international trade and corporate groups. He leads the firm’s Asia practice and is also a director of CMI Shanghai.
Chuck has more than 25 years of international trade and cross-border transactional experience.
He has been a strategic advisor to Fortune 500 companies in structuring market entry, global supply chain and e-commerce strategies across the Asia-Pacific region. He has in-depth experience in China with cross border acquisitions/ dispositions, government regulatory compliance, and investigations. His experience includes representing private equity funds and their portfolio companies in their expansion, operations, and disposition across Asia – including China, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, and India. He has experience in a broad range of technology and data-intensive industries, including medical devices, semiconductors, power generation, health care/pharmacy benefits management, advertising and public relations, video game development, and architecture/ engineering design services. He has also represented well-known luxury and sports-related brands growing in the Asia Pacific region, particularly in their e-commerce strategies targeted at Chinese consumers. His experience includes representation of companies in the cosmetics, apparel/accessories, food and beverage, hospitality and luxury department store segments expanding into China, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Robert Clifton Burns is a senior counsel in Crowell & Moring’s Washington office, where he focuses his practice on export controls, economic sanctions, customs, national security and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He represents clients in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, and the United States. His clients are in a broad range of industries including medical devices, military equipment, financial services, travel and hospitality and agriculture. He counsels clients on compliance matters as well as, in handling internal investigations, voluntary disclosures, and criminal defense.
Jackson Pai is a counsel in the international trade group in Crowell & Moring’s Los Angeles office. His practice covers a range of international and trade issues, including international corporate transactions, global mobility and employment, customs, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the World Trade Organization. He conducts due diligence of Chinese entities in connection with corporate mergers and acquisitions, and supports litigation and arbitration between US and Chinese companies. Additionally, Pai works with corporate entities and supply chains to help companies establish new investments into Asia, particularly China and Taiwan. He also advises companies on continuing obligations in employment and corporate contexts. Jackson served as the first legal advisor to the delegation of the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu to the WTO in Geneva from 2002 until 2006. In that capacity, he participated in more than 20 WTO disputes and the Doha Round negotiations.
