Biography: Trade & Customs

Brenda A Jacobs is counsel in the Washington, DC, office of Sidley Austin LLP. Her practice focuses on providing strategic and legal guidance on trade law and policy, compliance, negotiations, litigation, and legislation. She represents clients before the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US Department of Commerce, US Customs and Border Protection, the US Department of State, the US Department of Labor, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the US Congress.

Among Ms Jacobs' clients are: US importers and retailers of consumer products, multinational manufacturers, and governments and industry associations.

Ms Jacobs has extensive experience advising on free trade agreements and assisting companies with recordkeeping requirements and audits, obtaining customs rulings, preparing protests and responding to penalty proceedings, including intellectual property rights violations, and in drafting contracts, including vendor-purchaser and licensing agreements, and internal compliance programmes. She also advises on rules of origin and valuation issues and on matters pending before the WTO, particularly the dispute settlement body, assisting industries and governments in identifying viable claims and litigation strategies under WTO agreements.

Ms Jacobs previously served as senior counsel for trade agreements at the US Department of Commerce. Before that, Ms Jacobs was a legal advisor in the US International Trade Commission's general counsel's office, responsible for legal issues arising during anti-dumping, countervailing duty, safeguard, and section 337 (patent and trademark) investigations.

Ms Jacobs received her JD from The George Washington University School of Law in 1980 and her BS from Cornell University in 1976. She is admitted in the District of Columbia and California and is a licensed customs broker.