US law firm Arent Fox has hired Matthew Tuchband as its newest counsel, as it expands its international trade practice.

Tuchband joins the firm from the US Treasury department’s office of foreign assets control (OFAC), where he served for over 20 years. In the last 15 years, he was deputy chief counsel, overseeing a team of attorneys providing legal counsel and review of all of OFAC’s economic sanctions actions. Tuchband is also considered one of the US government’s primary experts on the use of the international emergency economic powers act (IEEPA), having been involved in the drafting of more than 65 executive orders, including recent executive orders on Iran, Venezuela and North Korea.

Based at Arent Fox’s Washington, DC office, Tuchband will advise the firm’s US and foreign clients on foreign trade and banking compliance with all aspects of economic sanctions and embargoes administered by OFAC.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Matthew to Arent Fox,” says Arent Fox’s international trade leader Kay Georgi. “As the longest serving sanctions legal expert at Treasury, Matthew was involved in almost every significant sanction development over the past two decades, including major shifts in sanctions policy on Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela, among other countries. Matthew will significantly bolster our deep bench of international trade attorneys and will be a tremendous asset to our clients as they navigate fast changing US and global economic sanctions.”