Bryan A. Elwood

belwood@curtis.com
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Washington, D.C. Office

 

Practice

Bryan A. Elwood is counsel in the Firm’s Washington D.C. office and a member of the International Trade and Cross-Border Investment Group. Mr. Elwood specializes in international trade and market access. His work includes assisting importers and exporters in commercial procedures and transactions, litigation, arbitration and problem solving in areas such as cross-border trade, customs, dumping, subsidies, safeguards, immigration, intellectual property, consumer protection and export controls. He has experience in the application of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, and domestic international trade laws of the United States and several countries in Latin America, as well as in the advocacy of international trade policy. Mr. Elwood has been active in the promotion and realization of cross-border investment and trade projects. He has represented multiple Latin American companies exporting their products to the United States as well as U.S. companies with market access issues in Latin America. As a public attorney he worked for the Mexican Ministry of Trade authorizing and helping foreign enterprises develop investment and trade projects with Mexico. He participated in the negotiation of NAFTA’s investment Chapter and in drafting Mexico’s current foreign investment law. He later became International Trade Counsel for the Embassy of Mexico in the U.S. Mr. Elwood was a trade capacity building consultant for the Organization of American States (OAS) and is a member of the roster of 25 experts that may be appointed by Mexico to act as arbitration of international disputes under NAFTA’s unfair trade practices Chapter.

Mr. Elwood was born and raised in Mexico, is fluent in Spanish and English, graduated with a Licenciatura en Derecho from the Universidad Iberoamericana, A.C., in Mexico City, with a specialization in Corporate and Foreign Investment Law. He earned an LL.M. focused on international transactions and trade from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington DC. Mr. Elwood was also a Professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, teaching a course entitled “NAFTA from a Mexican Perspective.”

Mr. Elwood is admitted to practice law in New York and Mexico.

• LL.M., Georgetown University Law center, 1994
• Licenciatura en Derecho, Universidad Iberoamericana, A.C., 1990

• “NAFTA Arbitration Reports”, Journal, Cameron May Ltd. (2008)
• “U.S. Food Standards Modernization--what Mexican and Canadian food exporters should know about U.S. food safety and how pending new regulation could become a problem for them,” North American Free Trade & Investment Report (May 31, 2007)
• “NAFTA at Twelve Years: An Overview”, International Law Practicum, Autumn 2006, Vol. 19, No.2 p.115, Co-written with Philip T. von Mehren and Milos Barutciski.
• “The Evolution of Free Trade in the Americas: NAFTA Case Studies”, American University International Law Review, Comparative Foreign Legal Systems, 11:687 (1996)

• “Embargoes and Sanctions Law for U.S. Companies,” Westchester and Southern Connecticut Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (WESFACCA), May 28, 2009.
• Speaker, “Trade Issues Affecting Exports from Latin America,” New York State Bar Association International Law and Practice Section Seasonal Meeting, September 2007
• Participated as international speaker in multiple conferences in Latin America, Asia, Africa, the U.S. and Europe, addressing NAFTA and international trade and investment issues.
• Live TV guest on Bloomberg News (Spanish Edition), addressing U.S. global safeguard action on steel.