Overview
Tahlia Townsend is an international trade lawyer in Holland & Knight's Stamford office. Ms. Townsend has been repeatedly recognized in Chambers USA and Chambers Global for her work helping U.S. and international clients navigate U.S. export controls, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Export Administration Regulations (EAR), U.S. financial sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and U.S. foreign investment regulations administered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
Among other services, Ms. Townsend assists clients with high-stakes internal investigations and voluntary disclosures, defends clients against government enforcement actions, performs export classification and licensing, develops and implements compliance programs and helps clients engaged in global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) with regulatory due diligence and preparation of submissions to CFIUS in connection with foreign investment.
Ms. Townsend's clients include major global defense and aerospace companies, international financial institutions, global software and high-tech companies, electronics manufacturers, (re)insurers, venture capital and private equity firms, news media, universities and foreign sovereign entities. According to Chambers Global, clients report that Ms. Townsend is "highly skilled, careful and thorough," "keenly aware of commercial ramifications," "collaborates closely to ensure she understands her clients' needs" and "provides very fast responses," "explain[ing] complex ideas in a concise and clear fashion."
Immediately after law school, Ms. Townsend served as law clerk to the Honorable Robert N. Chatigny and the Honorable Mark R. Kravitz of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. She previously taught English at the Lauder Javne Jewish Community School in Budapest, Hungary, performed research on intrusion detection in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, and studied French, German and Hungarian.
Representative Experience
- Retained by a global aerospace company under an International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) consent agreement to develop and deliver week-long, intensive training to more than 500 business and compliance personnel on all aspects of compliance with the ITAR, Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)
- Developed ITAR, EAR and OFAC compliance policies and procedures for a variety of companies, including a small U.S. producer of ballistic fabrics and foreign producer of counter-unmanned aerial systems (UAS), large global supplier of aerospace components, Fortune 200 global freight forwarding and third-party logistics (3PL) company, and foreign software company acquired by U.S. investors in a deal worth more than $1 billion
- Serves as the go-to OFAC sanctions advisor for a large international bank
- Counseled a leading European aerospace company regarding U.S. foreign investment rules and prepared a successful Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) notice for the company's acquisition of U.S. aerospace assets, resulting in prompt regulatory clearance
- Conducted a complex investigation of potential unauthorized exports via a large-scale software application employed by a major aerospace company and developed and oversaw implementation of robust corrective actions to permit compliant use of the software going forward
- Retained by a major international financial institution to conduct a wide-ranging investigation into and preparation of disclosures to OFAC regarding hundreds of potential violations of U.S. economic sanctions regulations, successfully culminating in closure by OFAC without penalty or other adverse action
- Retained by a special acquisition vehicle of a major international pharmaceutical company to advise on CFIUS implications of a U.S. biotech acquisition, culminating in successful mandatory disclosure of the acquisition to and approval by CFIUS
- Engaged by an Ivy League university to conduct a significant investigation into unauthorized exports of research materials, resulting in a successful voluntary disclosure submission closed by the regulator without penalty or other adverse action
- Advised a leading semiconductor industry supplier on export controls and sanctions, including submission of a successful voluntary disclosure related to exports to parties on the entity list, resulting in closure without penalty or other adverse actions
- Retained by a global information technology provider to investigate and prepare a sensitive voluntary disclosure regarding an international subsidiary's transactions with a party subject to U.S. sanctions
- Engaged by a major U.S. telecommunications company to analyze applicability to an international subsidiary of complex U.S. rules that make foreign products subject to U.S. export controls (de minimis exemption and foreign direct product rules)
- Served as a go-to advisor on complex U.S. sanctions questions for several non-U.S. financial institutions
- Assisted a large non-U.S. defense company with classification of a product, ITAR registration of a U.S. subsidiary, successful application for a Technical Assistance Agreement to facilitate intracompany operations and development of an export controls compliance program
- Retained by several major foreign corporations added to the U.S. Department of Commerce's entity list to advise on the consequences of the designation and assist the companies to comply
Credentials
- Yale Law School, J.D.
- Connecticut
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut
- Chambers USA – America's Leading Business Lawyers guide, Export Controls and Economic Sanctions, 2019-2024
- Chambers Global – The World's Leading Lawyers for Business guide, Export Controls and Economic Sanctions, 2021-2025