Jacob Kopnick

Joshua Drew, former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, has joined Miller & Chevalier as a member. Drew's practice will center on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act proceedings, corporate compliance and internal and external investigations, the firm said. He served as assistant U.S. attorney 2003-2009, and before that as a DOJ trial attorney in the agency's fraud section. More recently, Drew helped lead international communications company Veon through an FCPA monitorship.

Lydia Childre, former international trade and logistics senior associate at Venable, has joined boutique trade law firm Lighthill, the firm announced on LinkedIn. Childre worked at Venable for nearly two years after serving as a senior project adviser on Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs at the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration. Her practice at Lighthill will center on "national security and trade policy," the firm said. Lighthill was founded earlier this year by former Crowell & Moring attorney John Anwesen (see 2307050026).

North Carolina-based specialty chemicals manufacturing company Albemarle Corp. agreed to pay over $218 million to settle DOJ and SEC investigations on alleged violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, DOJ announced. The violations resulted from Albemarle's payment of bribes to government officials in Vietnam, Indonesia and India.

World Trade Organization members, meeting Sept. 27-28, swapped views on how to ramp up transparency on other members' agricultural measures. Members of the Committee on Agriculture suggested "streamlining and simplifying the current export subsidy notification requirements" and mulled over a proposal from the committee chair to specifically address transparency, WTO said.

The European Parliament on Oct. 3 voted to pass the bloc's proposed Anti-Coercion Instrument, which will allow EU to impose countermeasures, including tariffs and other trade and investment restrictions, on third countries for economic coercion (see 2306060019).

The U.K. updated its Russia sanctions guidance to add additional licensing grounds with the aim of divesting from Russia, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said. The guidance says that, for divestment purposes, a license may be granted to provide oil refining goods, energy-related goods, luxury goods, jet fuel and "Russia's vulnerable goods" in Russia or to someone linked with Russia. The licensing grounds also cover the provision of technical assistance, brokering services, financial services or funds related to the oil refining goods, energy-related goods, jet fuel and Russia's vulnerable goods.

The European Commission appointed Miranda de Meijer of the Netherlands to be a new prosecutor in the European Public Prosecutor's Office. De Meijer is a former public prosecutor and criminal lawyer, most recently serving as a senior advocate-general at the Netherlands' Public Prosecution Service. Her term as a European prosecutor will run for six years beginning Nov. 1 and is nonrenewable. The European Public Prosecutor's Office investigates and prosecutes crimes pertaining to the EU's financial interests, including fraud, corruption and major cross-border value-added tax fraud.

Trade attorney Julia Kuelzow has moved from Kelley Drye, where she worked as an associate, to Fenwick & West, where she now works as a trade and national security associate, per a notice at the Court of International Trade. At Fenwick, Kuelzow's practice centers on export controls and sanctions, shifting from her trade remedies work at Kelley Drye. Prior to working at Kelley Drye, Kuelzow served as a law clerk at CIT and as a junior dispute settlement lawyer at the World Trade Organization, according to her LinkedIn page.

China condemned the Treasury Department's additions of 28 entities, including various Chinese entities, on the Entity List for their acts violating U.S. national security. The U.S. "abuses unilateral sanctions" to undercut international trade rules, hinder normal trade exchanges and curb the "legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies," the Ministry of Commerce said, according to an unofficial translation.

China and the EU held the "10th EU-China High-Level Economic and Trade Dialogue" on Sept. 25, discussing the effect of Russia's war in Ukraine on global economics, food and energy security. Also discussed were "EU concerns on access to the Chinese market," prospects for rebalancing the EU-China trade relationship "on the basis of transparency," and predictability and reciprocity, the European Commission said.