Brian Egan

Photo of Brian Egan

Brian Egan advises on a number of international legal issues that affect US and foreign clients, including economic sanctions, export controls, and anti-money laundering programs; national security trade and investment reviews; international arbitration and other cross-border disputes; international cybersecurity and data privacy; and issues of public international law. He has worked in various senior legal positions for the US government, giving him keen insight into domestic and international legal matters that influence US government national security and foreign relations policies and programs. Before joining Steptoe, Brian served as the Legal Adviser to the US Department of State, the Legal Adviser to the National Security Council, Deputy White House Counsel, and Assistant General Counsel for Enforcement and Intelligence with the US Department of the Treasury. Brian has regularly appeared in public fora to speak on international legal issues, including testifying before Congress, public speaking engagements, and panel presentations.

Read Brian's full bio.

Firm/Organization: Steptoe & Johnson LLP
Blogs: Steptoe Blockchain Blog, International Compliance Blog, Steptoe Cyberblog

Latest Articles

After months of hearings and other deliberations, Congress passed, and President Trump signed into law on August 13, 2018, the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA). FIRRMA marks the first update to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in over a decade and will considerably expand the jurisdiction of the Committee and make other important changes to its rules. A text of the final version of FIRRMA (Sections…
russian flag
On August 8, 2018, the US State Department announced that it would be imposing new sanctions on Russia pursuant to the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act of 1991 (CBW Act).  The new sanctions are in response to a determination by the US government that the Russian government was behind the recent use of a nerve agent in the United Kingdom against two UK citizens.  The CBW Act requires the imposition of…
President Trump issued an Executive Order today re-imposing and, in some cases, expanding sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2016 nuclear deal (the “JCPOA”), as today marked the end of the first “wind-down” period of 90 days following the President’s May 8 announcement that the US would no longer honor its sanctions commitments under the JCPOA.  Some of the re-imposed sanctions will be effective tomorrow, August 7; others will come back into…
Earlier this week, negotiators from the House and Senate reached agreement on what will very likely be the final text of the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), which will be part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA). FIRRMA seeks to overhaul the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) by expanding the scope of the committee’s jurisdiction and closing certain “loopholes,” among other revisions.  A text…
Since President Trump’s announcement, on May 8, that the United States would withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”) and re-impose previously lifted sanctions against Iran, the remaining JCPOA signatories have been scrambling to save the agreement. On June 4, officials from the UK, Germany, France, and the EU sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin seeking a number of exemptions to US…
The FinCEN Customer Due Diligence Requirements for Financial Institutions, known as the CDD Rule or the “Fifth Pillar,” becomes effective today for certain covered U.S. Financial Institutions.  This CDD Rule, which amends U.S. Bank Secrecy Act regulations, seeks to improve financial transparency and prevent money laundering/terrorist financing.  The CDD Rule applies to covered U.S. financial institutions that are banks, mutual funds, brokers or dealers in securities, futures commission merchants, and introducing brokers in commodities.…
On May 1, OFAC issued two amended general licenses under the Ukraine-Related Sanctions Regulations (URSR). General License No. 12B, superseding General License No. 12A, authorizes additional activities necessary to the maintenance and winding down of operations or existing contracts. General License No. 13A, superseding General License No. 13, authorizes certain additional transactions necessary to divest from certain blocked persons. OFAC also issued three new FAQs (583-585) and revised four others (570, 571, 578,…
On April 16, 2018, the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) imposed a denial order involving Zhongxing Telecommunications Equipment Corporation of Shenzhen, China (ZTE Corporation) and ZTE Kangxun Telecommunications Ltd of Hi-New Shenzhen, China (ZTE Kangxun).  The denial order, effective immediately, restricts ZTE Corporation and ZTE Kangxun from participating in any way in any transaction involving any hardware, software, or technology that is exported / re-exported or to be exported /…
In episode 212 of The Cyberlaw Podcast, Stewart Baker is at RSA, and Brian Egan, Maury Shenk, and Pete Jeydel of Steptoe are joined by David Kris and Nate Jones of Culper Partners LLC to cover the good, the bad and the ugly of the week that was. UK cyber issues: Brian, Maury, David and Nate discuss the US-UK-France weekend airstrikes against Syria’s chemical weapons program, and reported threats of Russian “cyber retaliation” against the…