Practitioner Profile: Christopher Stagg

Export controls attorney Christopher Stagg was featured in a Q&A with The Export Practitioner on his move to Holland & Knight, pressing issues in the export controls space and his background in the public sector. Mr. Stagg joined Holland & Knight in December 2024 after serving as a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), where he was the deputy lead in revising the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). He commented on a growing trend of law large firms integrating lawyers like him with extensive export controls and dispute resolution experience, saying combining perspectives and knowledge brings new opportunities and helps create a "substantial legal toolkit" for clients. Looking at today's field, he observed that the speed of rulemaking and number of new rules is affecting companies the most, and he added that solving novel problems is a rewarding part of his work. He additionally shared that an interesting aspect of his tenure at the DDTC was reforming the commodity jurisdiction process – a major change from how the agency had approached these reviews for 25 years. He concluded by recommending that attorneys looking to enter the field of export controls to analyze regulations from multiple angles and passed along words of wisdom from a law professor to which he still adheres: Never offer advice without the rules in front of you.

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