International law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP announced today that it has added Charles Shotwell as a Senior Attorney to its National Security Group to augment the Firm’s capacity to advise clients on U.S. export control and embargo matters.

From 2009-2012, Mr. Shotwell served as the Director of Defense Trade Controls Policy at the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), U.S. Department of State, and was one of the principal initial contributors to the Obama Administration’s Export Control Reform (ECR) initiative to revise the U.S. Munitions List (USML). Previous to that, Mr. Shotwell was a Senior Foreign Affairs Advisor in the U.S. Department of Defense. He is also a retired career U.S. Air Force officer and Staff Judge Advocate who held many key national security positions, including service on the staff of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has been a negotiator of international defense cooperation agreements and has reviewed Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreements with U.S. allies. He also taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy and published/lectured at the National Defense University. Prior to joining Dorsey & Whitney, Mr. Shotwell was a private export control consultant.

Nelson Dong, head of Dorsey’s National Security Group, said, “We are absolutely thrilled to have Chuck Shotwell joining our Firm. He will bring to our clients many years of experience and knowledge about defense trade issues under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), especially as those rules have been so sharply revised through the recent ECR changes. Chuck will add particular depth and perspective to our ability to advise technology, aerospace and defense companies, universities and research institutes about technology transfer, export licensing, brokering and commodity jurisdictions under the ITAR and the transition under ECR of many items to the jurisdiction of the Department of Commerce.”

Mr. Shotwell said, “I am very pleased to be joining Nelson Dong, Larry Ward and their team in the premier national security practice on the West Coast so I can continue my work in export control law and defense trade. Having personally led the ECR effort from within the State Department for three years, it is just a great opportunity for me now to advise industry on how to gain the most benefit from those ECR changes. I believe that ECR will continue to have particularly profound effects across the aerospace, aviation, marine and electronics industries for years to come as global companies adjust to these very different U.S. export control rules.”

Mr. Shotwell is a graduate of the University of Puget Sound and Seattle University Law School. He holds an LL.M. in international law from the American University Law School and was a National Defense Fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.