United States: Biden Supply Chain Policy Video Series

Rafic H. Barrage is a Principal in Baker & McKenzie's North America Tax Practice Group. He has almost 20 years of broad international tax planning experience. Mr. Barrage advises clients on a variety of issues, including restructuring and entity rationalization, IP migration, supply-chain planning and principal structures, the taxation of digital transactions, deferral and repatriation planning, foreign tax credit planning, and post-U.S. tax reform tax optimization. Mr. Barrage is a recognized leader in his field by The Legal 500 (2010 and 2011) (described as one of the "impressive younger partners" and "technically very strong") and as one of the Tax Controversy Leaders by the International Tax Review (2011 and 2012). Mr. Barrage is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, where he has taught the International Tax Business Planning workshop since 2013.

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Christina Conlin is a member of Baker McKenzie's International and Commercial practice in Chicago. Prior to joining the Firm, Christina was chief compliance officer for McDonald's Corporation's European operations, providing strategic leadership and guidance on regulatory compliance and corporate governance for 39 markets across Europe, Central Asia and North Africa. She also previously served as general counsel in McDonald's US central division, where she led a legal team that advised the company and senior leadership on franchising, supply chain, real estate and operational matters. Christina also worked for more than a decade as a trial lawyer in private practice, representing franchisors, distributors, real estate developers, manufacturers and others in court and arbitration. Christina has been named to the 2017 Crain's Chicago Business List of Most Influential Women Lawyers in Chicago and 2018 Crain’s Chicago Business List of Most Notable Women Lawyers in Chicago.

Kerry Contini is a partner in the Firm’s Outbound Trade Practice Group in Washington, DC. She has served as co-chair of the Firm's Pro Bono committee for several years and has managed award-winning pro bono work involving Baker McKenzie professionals in North America, Europe and Asia. She has written on export controls and trade sanctions issues for several publications, including The Export Practitioner and Ethisphere. Kerry is a co-chair of the Export Controls and Sanctions Section of the Association of Women in International Trade. She joined the Firm as a summer associate in 2005 and became a full-time associate in 2006.

Reagan Demas has significant experience working on behalf of companies and investors in emerging markets and high risk jurisdictions. He has managed major legal compliance investigations for a variety of Fortune 500 companies and negotiated settlements before the US Department of Justice, US Securities and Exchange Commission, and other federal and state regulatory entities, obtaining declinations in a number of matters. He has also conducted risk assessments and due diligence in a variety of legal compliance matters for companies across industries, and has worked on the ground evaluating partnerships, investments and other business opportunities worldwide. Reagan has written and spoken extensively on emerging compliance trends, ethics, corruption and doing business in Africa. In 2019, Reagan was selected as a BTI Client Service All Star by corporate counsel in recognition of being a leader in superior client service.

Mr. McKenzie's practice is focused on cross-border transactions and international trade regulation, including: - Export Controls, Economic Sanctions Regulation, Customs and Import Regulation - Integrated Corporate Compliance and Anti-Corruption Compliance: Advisory and Investigations - International commercial and technology development and transfer transactions Mr. McKenzie was articles editor at the Harvard Law Review from 1975-1976. Between college and law school Mr. McKenzie served in the Peace Corps in the northwestern mountains of Guatemala. He joined Baker & McKenzie in 1976. Since that time, he has worked in Baker & McKenzie offices in Caracas, Venezuela and Taipei, Taiwan, in addition to San Francisco. For the past 40 years, Mr. McKenzie has arranged and chaired the annual Baker McKenzie Import/Export Conference, the leading international trade regulation and compliance conference in the West Coast of the United States.

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Alexandra Minkovich is a partner in Baker McKenzie's North American Tax Practice with more than fifteen years of experience handling a variety of tax, tax controversy, and legislative and regulatory matters. She also brings significant experience representing clients with respect to domestic tax issues, particularly in the life sciences, pharmaceutical, retail, and manufacturing industries, and is well versed in administrative law. Immediately prior to joining the Firm, Ms. Minkovich served as Associate Tax Legislative Counsel with the US Department of Treasury, Office of Tax Policy. In that role, Ms. Minkovich advised the Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy) and General Counsel regarding tax policy considerations in regulations and Internal Revenue Bulletin guidance, provided advice on tax legislative proposals, and provided litigation advice regarding the validity of Treasury and IRS guidance. She also provided technical comments on tax legislation to the Senate Committee on Finance and the House Ways & Means Committee, as well as to individual members’ offices. Ms. Minkovich speaks regularly at seminars and writes on a variety of topics related to legislative and regulatory developments, and administrative law.

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Doug Sanders leads Baker & McKenzie's US Environmental Litigation practice. He represents a broad range of domestic and non-US corporations before federal, state and administrative courts in environmental, class action, mass tort and product liability litigation, government enforcement, permitting and criminal proceedings.

Christine Streatfeild is a partner in the IPTech Practice Group. She has a broad range of trade, regulatory, and litigation experience, most frequently representing clients in antidumping and countervailing duty cases, safeguard measures, duties imposed for national security purposes (Section 232 duties), and Section 337 intellectual property and trade secrets disputes. She appears before the US International Trade Commission (ITC), US Department of Commerce (DOC), and the federal courts. She also routinely advises companies regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on issues affecting mergers, acquisitions, licensing, and compliance. Prior to joining Baker McKenzie, Ms. Streatfeild served as the acting deputy director of the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and in the Environment and Natural Resources division of the Office of the United States Trade Representative. She has also served as an adjunct professor at the Krieger School, Johns Hopkins University, where she taught Global Trade, Policy and Competition.

Callie C. Lefevre is an associate in the Washington, DC office where she is a member of the International Practice Group. Her practice is focused on all aspects of International Trade law, particularly compliance with US export controls, trade and economic sanctions, and US foreign investment restrictions. Prior to joining Baker McKenzie, Callie worked as a student advocate for the New York University School of Law Environmental Law Clinic. While there, she participated in environmental litigation and advocacy pertaining to water quality and urban runoff under the supervision of attorneys at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Callie’s experience also includes working as a summer associate at Baker McKenzie in 2014, where she participated in all aspects of International Trade law, and working as a legal intern at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Beirut, Lebanon.

Maria Piontkovska is an associate in Baker McKenzie's Los Angeles office. Maria advises clients on reducing anti-corruption compliance risks stemming from operating business in emerging markets and handles internal investigations and related interactions with law enforcement authorities.

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