Biography • Trade & Customs

Brenda Jacobs provides strategic and legal guidance to multinationals, trade associations and governments on customs and 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 International Trade Commission, 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 and major US apparel retailers, as well as multinational manufacturers, and government and industry associations.

Ms Jacobs has extensive experience assisting companies in 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 with 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, and assists industries and governments in identifying viable claims and litigation strategies under WTO agreements. She is the co-author of a report for the World Bank on non-market economy countries.

Ms Jacobs previously served as Senior Counsel for Trade Agreements at the US Department of Commerce. She was one of the primary US Government negotiators of the 1986 Protocol extending the Multifiber Arrangement. Before that, Ms Jacobs was a legal adviser in the US International Trade Commission's General Counsel's office.

Ms Jacobs received her JD from The George Washington University School of Law, with honours, in 1980 and her BS from Cornell University in 1976. She is admitted in the District of Columbia.