Concentration

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and corporate internal investigations, international trade, export controls and national security

Summary

Guillermo Christensen practices within the global projects/international trade group, representing clients on complex international matters, including those arising under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), U.S. export controls and enforcement and the Exon-Florio process regulating foreign direct investment into the U.S. through the CFIUS process.

Mr. Christensen spent over seventeen years in the U.S. government, working in positions in the intelligence community and in the U.S. diplomatic corps. Most recently, Mr. Christensen returned to public service with the U.S. State Department from 2010-2011, serving in France as the Science and Technology Advisor to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In that capacity, Mr. Christensen was primarily responsible for issues such as telecommunications and internet, including cyber-security, data privacy, cross-border data flows, internet governance and intellectual property rights. Mr. Christensen was also responsible for overseeing work in the OECD’s Steel Committee and working parties on nano- and bio-technology. While in Paris, Mr. Christensen was awarded a fellowship to study the United Kingdom’s new antibribery law and was active in building outreach between the OECD and antibribery lawyers in Europe.

Mr. Christensen’s diplomatic service has focused on complex international negotiations, including a year-long process to secure agreement in 2011 on a set of principles at the OECD for international policy-making on internet issues.  From 1996 to 1999, while based in Germany, Mr. Christensen was heavily involved in complex diplomatic negotiations in the Balkans, including as part of the negotiating team to the Rambouillet Peace Talks in Paris and Sarajevo. In 2000, he received the U.S. Department of State’s Meritorious Honor Award for his contributions to breakthroughs in Balkan peace-making efforts. Mr. Christensen’s prior service in the US Intelligence Community includes work on a range of national security issues, counterterrorism and homeland security including a post-9/11 detail with the FBI.

From 2001 to 2002, Mr. Christensen held the National Intelligence Fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, and as a life member, continues to be an active participant in the Council. Mr. Christensen is a 2010-2011 co-chair for international issues of the American Bar Associations criminal litigation committee.

Publications, Speeches and Presentations

• Moderator, Council on Foreign Relations Panel on Forecasting the Future: Social Media as an Intelligence Tool, February 2012
• Remarks on Data Governance and U.S. Policy to IBM Data Governance Conference, Talleryand Building, Paris France, 2011 
• Moderator, Council on Foreign Relations Corporate Program Discussion on CFIUS, National Security and U.S. Financial Direct Investment, 2007
• Profiled by the Department of State for contributions by Hispanics to the diplomacy of the United States
• Member of the advisory committee to the Council on Foreign Relations Special Report on CFIUS: “Foreign Investment and National Security: Getting the Balance Right,” 2006
• “Un-Intelligence,” Wall Street Journal, February 17, 2006
• Observer and contributor, “Balkans 2010,” Council on Foreign Relations Task Force Report, 2002
• Contributor, “Red-Teaming the Data Gap,” Council on Foreign Relations Paper, 2002