Mr Stephen Kho > Akin > Geneva, Switzerland > Lawyer Profile

Akin regularly provide advice to governments and private sector clients on leveraging WTO rules to overcome market access barriers as well as providing support in designing frameworks that are WTO-compliant. The team not only handles WTO dispute settlement and trade policy and trade negotiations, but also has expertise in trade remedies, trade compliance, and national security and investment screening, Alan Yanovich, who heads the practice, is an ‘experienced lawyer’ with extensive knowledge of international trade and investment matters at the multilateral, regional, and bilateral levels. Jasper Helder’s clients rely on him to assist with developing and executing mitigation strategies for trade compliance. Other key team members include Stephen Kho, who handles matters related to trade policy and international dispute resolution, and Chiara Klaui, who advises clients on EU, Swiss and UK trade compliance and drafts and supports the implementation of policies and procedures.

‘Uniquely deep on trade, investment, and national security issues’,  Akin houses a full-service international trade practice that is routinely involved in high-stakes trade remedy litigation and trade policy matters. The Washington DC-based group acts for domestic industries, as well as foreign producers and exporters, in many of the most closely watched cases to come to market. In a highlight example, Matthew Nicely is representing HMTX, and over 100 additional plaintiffs, in the marquee challenge to the US government’s Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods. In another high-profile case, Bernd Janzen is acting alongside next-generation partner Yujin Kim McNamara to represent the Government of British Columbia in a long-running series of countervailing duty proceedings and managed trade agreements involving US imports of softwood lumber from Canada. Other go-to trade litigators include Stephen Kho, who is a former acting chief counsel on China enforcement at the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR); and Hal Shapiro, who has had several government-side roles, including a stint as Senior Advisor for International Economic Policy at the National Economic Council. At junior level, ‘strong counsel’ Sarah Kirwin is a key name.