Steptoe & Johnson has added two to its Homeland Security practice in Washington. Stephen Heifetz, who joined Steptoe as a partner, and Marc Frey, who joined as senior director, were previously in the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Policy. They started work at the firm on April 19.
At DHS, Heifetz was deputy assistant secretary and, during the transition to the new administration, acting assistant secretary for the Office of Policy Development. He worked on security screening policies for people and cargo and developed new laws and regulations for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, and he reviewed hundreds of proposed acquisitions of U.S. companies by foreign investors.
At Steptoe, Heifetz and Frey will advise companies on homeland security matters as well as anti-money laundering regulations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, export controls, and economic sanctions laws.
Prior to serving as chief of staff for the Office of Policy Development under Arif Alikhan, the office's assistant secretary, Frey spent three years overseeing the Visa Waiver Program and led government negotiations on security and law enforcement agreements with the 36 countries participating in the program. Frey also served as a senior adviser from 2005 to 2007 in the DHS Office of Security, where he shaped counterintelligence, law enforcement, facility protection, contingency planning, and other security-related policies and programs.
Heifetz said he and Frey made the move to Steptoe to join their old boss Stewart Baker, who left DHS in March 2009 as assistant secretary for policy and now heads the three-professional Homeland Security practice at Steptoe.
“Steptoe has the exact kind of platform we were looking for because it has existing strengths in a number of areas like international regulation and compliance, CFIUS and FCPA, where our experience at DHS will be a good benefit for clients,” Heifetz said. “Homeland security policies increasingly require companies to understand how the department works.”
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