Perry S. Bechky

… has over 25 years of experience as an international lawyer. Mr. Bechky has represented clients from more than fifty countries on five continents.

Mr. Bechky began his career at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he worked for the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) (the agency responsible for administering the major U.S. economic sanctions programs), the Customs Service, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Before joining Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP, Mr. Bechky also practiced for over thirteen years at two global law firms, taught for five years at two universities, and ran his own boutique law firm for three years.

Mr. Bechky has managed significant international projects before federal courts, federal regulators, and international tribunals. His projects have included cross-border litigation and arbitration, internal investigations, international negotiations, management of legal and political risks, national security reviews of corporate deals, expropriation claims under political-risk-insurance policies, regulatory proceedings, and dispute settlement under international trade agreements. His clients have included national governments, international organizations, individuals and small businesses, and leading businesses in agriculture, banking and finance, energy, manufacturing, services, and technology.

Mr. Bechky has handled hundreds of economic sanctions projects, including civil penalty proceedings, compliance, counseling, expert testimony, internal investigations, interpretative rulings, licensing, and securities disclosure. His experience with sanctions extends beyond OFAC regulations to include such statutes as the Helms-Burton Act, the Iran Sanctions Act, and the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act, as well as international measures like UN Security Council resolutions and foreign "blocking statutes."

Mr. Bechky has also handled a variety of other regulatory issues affecting international business, including national security reviews of transnational mergers and acquisitions by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) under the Exon-Florio Amendment, the Foreign Investment and National Security Act (FINSA), and the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA), as well as export controls maintained by the Departments of Commerce and State (EAR and ITAR) and trade policy.

Mr. Bechky also has extensive experience representing clients in disputes concerning international law, including international investment law, international trade agreements, and sovereign immunity. He lived in Tokyo for six months, working intensively with the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) on World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement. 

Mr. Bechky drafted the U.S.-Hong Kong Policy Act (22 U.S.C. § 5701), which establishes the legal basis for U.S. relations with Hong Kong in light of its special status as a "special administrative region" of China.  He writes and lectures about economic sanctions, human rights, international arbitration, international investment, international law, international litigation, international trade, political risk insurance, and treaties.

Mr. Bechky has served in various leadership positions with the American Society of International Law, including service on the Executive Council and as the elected cochair of the Society's interest group on resolution of international disputes.

Representative Projects

Won challenges against both Indonesian restrictions on trade in automobiles and U.S. antidumping duties on Korean steel under the WTO procedures for resolving intergovernmental trade disputes

Secured dismissal of a federal class action alleging that OPEC violated the U.S. antitrust laws, affirmance by the Eleventh Circuit, and denial of certiorari

Prosecuted claims successfully under political-risk-insurance (PRI) policies for the expropriation of investments in Argentina and India, including the first "lender-side" claim paid by the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the second largest expropriation claim paid by OPIC, and a multimillion dollar arbitral award

Represented clients on various matters concerning bilateral investment treaties (BITs), international investment agreements, and investor-state arbitration

Sat as an arbitrator in an international arbitration (ad hoc) arising from a joint venture

Submitted written testimony to California state court as an expert on U.S. economic sanctions law and assisted another sanctions expert in submitting written testimony to an international arbitral tribunal

Negotiated a commercial and regulatory solution when the innocent buyer of Iraqi crude oil learned that the oil had been exported from Iraq in violation of the terms of the United Nations Oil for Food program

Developed and executed a strategy that allowed the buyer of a U.S. manufacturer of telecom equipment to address potential export control violations by the target company

Obtained CFIUS approval for many cross-border investments, involving automobile, aviation, chemicals, construction, electronics, energy, metals, naval equipment, satellites, semiconductors, and telecommunications

Secured a stay under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) of a U.S. lawsuit against a Belgian client in favor of arbitration in Denmark, facilitating a favorable settlement

Wrote amicus briefs to the DC Circuit for the Mexican Government in cases about the constitutionality and implementation of certain provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Worked pro bono for one month in Arusha, Tanzania at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, assisting the prosecution team with the trial of four accused architects of the Rwandan genocide. 

What Our Clients Say about Perry

Source: Chambers 2024

Perry Bechky is wonderful. He has great knowledge. I love working with Perry. He's very involved in the area. He can give quick, wonderful, precise advice. He's very responsive and very practical in terms of his advice.

He is an incredible professional with an encyclopedic knowledge and understanding of cross-border commercial issues, especially as they relate to general US sanctions issues and OFAC.

With Perry Bechky you are in great hands. He delivers on what he promises. Perry is very diligent and detail-oriented, but he doesn't lose sight of the big picture. Also, he knows which aspects can be better covered by other members of the team.

Perry Bechky is a standout. He delivered a work product on an extremely quick turnaround and made himself available for late-night phone calls.

Perry Bechky has been in this space for a long time and is great at what he does.

Perry Bechky has been in this space for a long time and is great at what he does.

Perry continually exhibits his depth of knowledge via the matters he handles for us. He is clearly adept at navigating the nascent and unprecedented complexities of the sanctions at issue while remaining cognizant of our business and operations. Perry's advice illustrates that he realizes our necessity to understand and comply with applicable restrictions. Perry is easily reached and consistently provides responses and deliverables on a timely, and often urgent, basis.

Perry's knowledge and experience in the sanctions arena is exceptional. He is very pleasant to deal with and is responsive, which as a quality is invaluable when operating in a fast-moving environment. Perry is always very responsive and regularly made himself available at short notice.