Teresa N. Taylor

A partner in Taft’s Litigation practice group, Teresa defends executives, corporations, and their owners during complex parallel investigations before federal courts, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Treasury, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and other involved agencies (BIS, OFAC, FBI, DHL, IRS, etc.) concerning alleged civil and criminal violations of U.S. trade sanctions and import-export regulations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and anti-money laundering (AML) statutes, and related laws (IEEPA, TWEA, U.S. Patriot Act, ITAR, etc.). In such matters Teresa works quickly for her clients to diffuse and mitigate damage, routinely removing matters from public exposure and attaining quiet global resolutions. Her experience also includes conducting corporate investigations, international law, financial services regulatory matters, corporate work, civil litigation and appeals, compliance, torts, constitutional and administrative law, and cryptocurrency matters.

Samples of Teresa’s results for clients in public matters include:

• Lead counsel, represented Appellant client at the trial and appellate levels against the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the OFAC including complex, lengthy oral argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia resulting in effectively a ground-breaking reversal of a 4 Million maximum egregious penalty imposed by OFAC against her client; and
• Lead counsel, represented a foreign corporate airlines client in a never-before sought Writ of Mandamus action against the OFAC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia resulting in the prompt unfreezing and license by OFAC for the complete return to the client of 1 Million in frozen assets stemming from an airplane deal.

Prior to joining Taft, Teresa was a shareholder in a mid-sized firm, a partner in a DC boutique law firm, a senior attorney at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, IRS, and an associate at a prominent “Magic Circle” global law firm. She also served as a federal law clerk for three U.S. District Court judges in the Western District of Virginia: The Hon. James C. Turk, The Hon. James P. Jones, and The Hon. Michael F. Urbanski.

• Lead counsel in Epsilon Elecs., Inc. v. U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury, 857 F.3d 913, 920 (D.C. Cir. 2017). View opinion here. Listen to oral argument here.
• Lead counsel in U.S.A. v. Emad-Vaez, et al. CR-18-160 (N.D. Cal. 2021); and U.S. Dept of Commerce, BIS Settlement Agreement No. 18-BIS-0001, In the Matter of Pouran Aazad, Sadr Emad-Vaez, and Ghareh Sabz Co. (2019).
• Lead counsel in U.S.A. v. Oertmann and Hetran, Inc., 1:14-cr-00111-YK, (W.D. Pa. 2014); and U.S. Dept of Commerce, BIS Settlement Agreement In the Matter of Helmut Oertmann and Hetran, Inc. (2014).
• Lead counsel, representing former high-level C-suite Executive, Mr. Mats Olsson, former Chairman of North East Asia and Senior Vice President Asia-Pacific at LM Ericsson, a New York Stock Exchange publicly traded Swedish telecommunications corporation, in large global investigation and prosecution of alleged Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations for corruption and bribery of foreign officials by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and involving foreign proceedings simultaneously. LM Ericsson was fined the second largest FCPA fine in history at a total of $1.26 billion in 2019 and 2023 as part of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement settlement and an additional later fine stripping it of its cooperation credits for violations of that settlement agreement.
• Lead counsel, represented former CEO of foreign telecommunications company in large global investigation of alleged FCPA, AML, and related laws by the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and involving multiple foreign proceedings simultaneously.