Biography • Trade & Customs

Neil Ellis focuses his practice in the areas of international trade regulation and antitrust. In the international trade area, Mr Ellis has represented foreign and domestic companies, manufacturers, exporters, and importers before the US Department of Commerce, the International Trade Commission, and the federal courts in import regulatory proceedings. He has represented clients in some of the most complex and controversial anti-dumping, countervailing duty, and safeguards cases over the past 20 years involving products such as anti-friction bearings (Japan), steel (Netherlands, Russia, India, England), uranium (former Soviet Union), lumber (Canada), fertiliser products (Russia), and motion pictures (US/Canada). In highly political 'non-market economy' cases, he has provided advice in the negotiation of suspension agreements to settle the anti-dumping disputes. Mr Ellis also advises companies and governments on the use of the dispute settlement system of the World Trade Organization to resolve trade disputes, particularly in the areas of anti-dumping and countervailing duties.

Before entering private practice, Mr Ellis worked in the Appellate Section of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, where he briefed and argued antitrust and administrative law cases in the US courts of appeals. Mr Ellis was also a law professor at Hofstra University, where he taught courses in the areas of international trade and maritime law. He speaks regularly at conferences on international trade topics and has published articles on trade and antitrust topics.

Mr Ellis received his JD from Yale Law School (editor, Yale Law Journal) in 1980 and his AB, cum laude, from Cornell University in 1976. He is admitted in the District of Columbia.