Theodore Kassinger

Theodore Kassinger counsels US and foreign clients engaged in transnational business transactions, with an emphasis on international trade and investment regulatory matters. Calling on his more than 37 years of private practice and government experience, Ted provides regulatory, public affairs advocacy, and strategic counseling advice involving diverse issues of national security and international economic policy, including compliance with export control and economic sanctions regimes, industrial security rules administered by the Defense Security Service, trade remedies, and international trade and investment agreements. Ted is recognized as a leading lawyer handling matters involving the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Ted regularly works with companies across the industrial spectrum, and has particularly deep experience in advanced technology and energy sectors. Ted joined the firm after serving as the Deputy Secretary (2004-2005) and General Counsel (2001-2004) of the US Department of Commerce. As Deputy Secretary, he was responsible for the day-to-day management of the Department’s approximately US$6.2 billion budget, 13 operating units, and 39,000 employees. The Department’s varied missions include promoting US exports, administering unfair trade laws, and negotiating and enforcing international trade agreements; serving as effective stewards of the nation’s ocean, coastal, and living marine resources; formulating technology and telecommunications policy and administering the federal radio frequency spectrum; administering the patent and trademark system; and developing and applying technologies, measurements, and standards. As the second-ranking Department official, Ted oversaw programmatic development and implementation of those missions and represented the Department in senior policymaking councils of the Administration and before Congress. As General Counsel, Ted served as the Department’s chief legal and ethics officer. His responsibilities included determining legal positions taken by the Department in significant litigation, administrative, legislative, and policy matters; supervision of the Department’s ethics program; and management of the nearly 300 lawyers who advise and represent the Department on legal and ethics matters. Among other responsibilities, he co-chaired the Commercial Law Working Group of the United States—China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. Upon the conclusion of his tenure at the Commerce Department, Ted received the Secretary of Commerce’s William C. Redfield Award, the Department’s highest honor. From 1985 to 2001, Ted practiced law with another major international law firm, following earlier service as an attorney with the US Senate Committee on Finance, the U.S. Department of State, and the US International Trade Commission. Ted is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and of the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy. He also serves as a member of the Board of Advisers to the Dean Rusk Center for International, Comparative, and Graduate Legal Studies. University of Georgia, J.D., 1978: University of Georgia, B.L.A., 1975