Brian Gatta
Senior Counsel
Areas of Focus
- Export Controls & Economic Sanctions
- International Trade
- White Collar Defense & Government Investigations
- National Security
- United Kingdom & Europe
- Focuses on U.S. economic sanctions laws and policies implemented and administered by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
- Advises sovereign and multinational clients across a broad range of industry sectors, including financial services, technology, software, fintech, virtual currency, aerospace and defense, ecommerce, telecommunications, energy and mining.
Brian is a senior counsel in Akin’s Geneva office. His practice focuses on addressing questions concerning the operation of U.S. sanctions laws as they apply across a broad range of industry sectors, and in various contexts such as day-to-day compliance counseling, license requests and enforcement proceedings. Brian is a Co-Founder of and the Sanctions Module Lead for Akin’s OverRuled platform, which incorporates the TURBOFAC U.S. Economic Sanctions Research System that he founded. In that capacity, Brian has reviewed, analyzed and categorized substantially all published and accessible unpublished items attributable to OFAC that have been issued over the past several decades and has drafted over 9,000 pages of technical commentary and analysis on those items.
Prior to joining Akin as a Senior Counsel, Brian served as an external consultant to Akin’s economic sanctions practice, and prior to that he worked as an associate in the international trade departments of large law firms.
- Assisted in the securing of OFAC General Licenses and Specific Licenses on behalf of clients facing unintended consequences of U.S. sanctions against Russia.
- Assisted in the securing of OFAC Specific Licenses unblocking funds blocked pursuant to OFAC’s Russia-related sanctions regulations, in addition to Specific Licenses authorizing clients to engage in a wide range of otherwise prohibited transactions.
- Conducted internal investigations for multinational companies and drafted voluntary disclosures related to potential violations of U.S. sanctions laws.
- Advised investment funds and other entities on compliance with U.S. sanctions regarding Venezuelan sovereign debt and bonds issued by PdVSA.
- Leveraged in-depth knowledge of OFAC-issued unpublished interpretive guidance documents available on TURBOFAC in the course of counseling clients on the scope and operation of general licenses and exemptions infrequently addressed by OFAC in its generally available guidance.
EducationJ.D., Columbia Law School, 2007
B.A., Binghamton University, State University of New York, 2003
J.D., Columbia Law School, 2007
B.A., Binghamton University, State University of New York, 2003
Bar AdmissionsDistrict of Columbia
New York
District of Columbia
New York
