Babak Hoghooghi
… was appointed as the Managing Partner of Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP effective January 2023. His practice is primarily focused on U.S. economic sanctions laws, domestic and international commercial and business transactions, and corporate law.
Mr. Hoghooghi has had extensive experience on matters relating to U.S. economic sanctions. He has represented numerous clients in the U.S. and abroad, providing them with advice and counsel about compliance with the ever-changing and complex array of U.S. primary and secondary sanctions on Iran, Russia, Syria, and other countries with respect to licensing matters, including for the release of blocked funds or other properties, and in connection with voluntary disclosures, investigations, and civil/criminal enforcement actions before the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Representative U.S. sanctions matters have included:
- Advising clients concerning the potential application of U.S. secondary sanctions relating to the Nordstream and Turkstream gas pipeline projects;
- Advising export credit agencies of two major Asian countries with respect to the potential application of U.S. secondary sanctions;
- Submission of U.S. sanctions expert statement before a court in Germany in a dispute involving a prominent European financial institution and a major insurance company;
- Representing clients, including a major international law firm, in a number of significant international court cases or arbitration matters in which U.S. sanctions questions played a major role;
- Representing a European company with respect to an OFAC license application to unblock significant funds and subsequent civil forfeiture proceedings initiated by the DOJ;
- Representing eight individual clients facing extradition to the United States and/or criminal prosecution in U.S. courts for alleged violations of U.S. sanctions;
- Representing an Asian company in connection with criminal proceedings initiated by the DOJ involving alleged violations of U.S. sanctions on North Korea;
- Providing U.S. sanctions compliance advise to a number of third country clients with respect to commercial trade or investment in Iran in the aftermath of the JCPOA;
- Representing U.S. businesspersons with sanctions compliance advice with respect to potential investments in companies with Russian business dealings;
- Providing sanctions compliance advice to U.S. clients with respect to the distribution and marketing of an award-winning Iranian film in the U.S.;
- Representing a U.S. client with respect to an OFAC license for the shooting and production of a movie in Iran;
- Providing compliance advice to a number of U.S. or European clients engaged in humanitarian exports to Iran or charitable activities in Iran, Afghanistan, or Yemen.
Having practiced law for nearly thirty years, Mr. Hoghooghi has also represented clients on a wide range of domestic and international commercial and corporate matters. He has acted as counsel to Fortune 500 companies and small to medium size businesses in connection with the acquisition or sale of a variety of business entities or commercial assets, as well as the structuring and development of projects, including major domestic and international infrastructure and power projects. He has also represented borrowers as well as lenders in connection with the financing of major projects by commercial banks and export credit agencies. A structural engineer by training and previously a practicing licensed professional engineer, he has also had extensive experience with engineering projects and construction law issues.
Having earned his law degree from Georgetown University in 1994, Mr. Hoghooghi practiced at the law firm of Skadden Arps for more than 12 years. Mr. Hoghooghi was a founding Board Member and the first President of the Iranian American Bar Association for five years, beginning in 2000. He is admitted to the Bar in the State of New York and the District of Columbia.
Before entering law school, Mr. Hoghooghi received a Master of Science degree in Structural Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and worked as a licensed professional engineer (PE) at the Ralph M Parsons Company in Pasadena, California. He is fluent in spoken and written Persian (Farsi).
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