Customs Law

The Center for International Law at the John Marshall Law School has moved the annual DiCarlo-Court of International Trade Lecture back to the fall semester. That means we are having second one in calendar 2017. The event is Tuesday, November 14. Registration and details are available here . There will be two CLE panels including one featuring ethics credit. The first panel will discuss the status of NAFTA with perspectives from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. The second will focus on the ethical and practical issues related to conducting an corporate  internal investigation. These are great events for the Chicago-area trade community. Please come out to support the program, get CLE credit, and hear from expert speakers.

I am proud to be moderating the 15th Annual Dominick L. DiCarlo Court of International Trade Lecture at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago on April 20, 2017. John Marshall's Center for International Law was kind enough to start hosting this program in memory of the important contributions Judge DiCarlo made to the practice of trade law and to the three John Marshall alumni who served him as law clerks. The program will include a conversation with the Honorable Jennifer Choe-Groves about her transition from government and private practice to a judge of the Court of International Trade. We will also talk about the nature of practice before the specialized court. Following the Judge, there will be two informative CLE panels covering developments in trade compliance. Once will focus on developments in supply-chain risks such as the growing use of False Claims Act cases and changes in U.S. sanctions policies. The second panel will focus on numerous aspects of intellectual prop...

Because this is the 21st Century, I figured I should try more than one media. Below is the recording of a webinar I conducted with my colleague Chuck Joern . Consumer Products and Import Requirements from Barnes Global Trade on Vimeo .

Join CITBA for a CLE event on April 21 to be held at the Court of International Trade in New York. Details and registration is available here . Registration is a little funky for now. You'll need to click select Event in the box on the left side of the Meetings, then click Buy Now. After that, fill in the registration amount ($60 for general members, $30 for government employees) and your payment method. Please RSVP to info@thegateam.com . We're going to work on improving that process.

If you area a compliance person in the Chicago area, please come to the DiCarlo Lecture and CLE event at the John Marshall Law School on April 14. The event will end with a talk by Chief Judge Stanceu of the U.S. Court of International Trade. There will be a two hour CLE event leading up to his talk. The first panel will focus on international corporate compliance and ethics. The second panel, which I will moderate, will focus on Customs and Border Protection penalty cases. Judge Stanceu is expected to talk about the international harmonization of tariff law and its impact on U.S. court cases. The CLE event requires a registration fee. The DiCarlo Lecture, which is Chief Judge Stanceu's talk, is free, but registration is required. Click the link above to register.

I'll be speaking at the Georgetown ITU again this year. By "speaking," I mean moderating a panel full of smart people. The topic will be principal use in tariff classification. This is not as mundane as it sounds. Identifying use provisions is getting murkier and evidence of use is not always readily available. The full two-day program features new developments in the area of international trade. Plan to attend Feb. 26-27 at Georgetown Law in Washington DC. Info is here .   

I will again be moderating a panel at the annual Georgetown CLE International Trade Update in February. This is one of the premier trade-related educational events of the year and well worth the time and expense to attend. Other than my panel, which is a survey of recent developments in customs law, highlights include an always lively discussions with Court of International Trade and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit judges and a panel covering legislative issues. As a bonus, there will be ethics credit available. Click here to read the program brochure .

UPDATED TO ADD LINK TO FCBA/CITBA EVENT. In case you were wondering, I am here. I've had a lot going on at work and have also been trying to finalize a law review article. Luckily, I have been able to enlist the services of a recent John Marshall Law School grad to finish up some of the detail work. I hope that is coming to an end and that I can get it published. Also on the update front, I'll be speaking at the Georgetown 2013 International Trade Update on March 1. The program start on February 28. This is always a good program. It is worth the effort to attend. The details are here . Then, on March 21, I'll be in New York to speak at a program sponsored by the Federal Circuit Bar Association and the Customs and International Trade Bar Association . In between, I'll be at the ICPA conference . Yes, there are a lot of air miles between those events. As always, if you see me at any event, please introduce yourself.

Register here.

I know things have really slowed down here when my family complains that I am not posting often enough. I have not done a completely off-topic post in a while. And, the on-topic world has been personally fairly busy of late while at the same time not particularly full of interesting developments. So, here are a couple updates culled from the recent news. None involve animal smuggling. The Justice Department has announced a new task force on intellectual property enforcement. In many ways, I think this is great. Intellectual property really is the engine that drives vast swaths of our economy. But, I admit to feeling a little queasy every time I hear about increased IPR enforcement involving imports. The reason is that I know that many well-intentioned small business people inadvertently get caught up buying counterfeit merchandise and end up losing money and merchandise as a result. I am not making excuses for them, I just wonder whether they have a voice with the government. More wor...

By that title, I mean this is an update about the blog. My routine in the morning is to check the Federal Register for agency updates and the Court of International Trade and Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit pages for new cases. I also have Google alerts for relevant topics. I tweet the little things that strike me as interesting or amusing. And, I feel like it has been quiet lately. Not much has seemed blog-worthy. I do have the UPS decision from the Court of International Trade sitting on my desk. I'll blog that sooner or later. The bottom line, though, is simple. In broker penalty cases, Customs is supposed to consider a list of 10 elements when setting penalties. If it fails to consider all 10, it did not do its job and any penalty assessed is invalid. On the more general front, I've got some speaking events coming up. I'll be at the Georgetown International Trade Update February 25-26, and at ICPA's Orlando meeting March 14-18. For those in the oil busi...

Yes, I feel chastised by the comment to a previous post. Here are the details on the always excellent Georgetown Law CLE International Trade Update for 2009. Here is the brochure . And here is the blurb: Designed for both new practitioners and experienced trade and customs lawyers, the international Trade Update provides you with critical knowledge, skills and practice development ideas. This is a unique opportunity for you to spend time with experienced lawyers and government officials exploring the up-to-the-minute developments in international trade and customs law. Not only will you receive practical tips on how to help your clients solve complex problems, but you will analyze the projected trends for the coming years through plenary and specialized break-out sessions.

I am feeling a little guilty about the lack of substance and insight of late. I won't make excuses other than to say that I've had my head in a recently filed appellate brief, some travel, and other distractions. I do have some upcoming events that may be of interest. Preparing for these have been part of the distractions: On October 16, I'll be in NY helping with a CITBA program on courtroom skills. This should be a fun program. We are going to be doing mock-trial segments in front of Judge Wallach who will tell the us all what we did right, did wrong, or could do better. On October 29, I'll be in Toronto at the IE|Canada meeting to discuss customs valuation. Here are the details on that event. October 30, 2008 I will be speaking on NAFTA at a program near Chicago sponsored by the World Trade Center of Illinois. Here is a link to the brochure . Lastly, I'll be back in NY in November for the 15th Judicial Conference of the U.S. Court of International Trade. ...

On Wednesday, I did a talk for IPC , the trade association for the printed circuit board industry. The talk went well, I think. Afterwards, I sat down for a short interview about trade issues. You can watch that interview here . Note: The link takes you to a landing page. You'll have to click on the link on the right side of the page to get my interview. Here are the highlights: Profile is not the most flattering view What is happening to my hair? Remember when I exercised? Do I always sound like Kermit the Frog? Other than that, you can judge for yourself.

If any of you happen to be headed to the ie|Canada annual meeting on Monday through Wednesday, I'll be there. Please say hello. I'll be talking on U.S. penalty law and manning the Barnes/Richardson booth at the trade show where we will try hard to give away an iPod.