Awareness of FARA Higher Than Ever Before, Jeffress Says

Amy Jeffress, co-chair of the firm’s White Collar Defense & Investigations practice, was recently featured in the Law360 Pulse article, “Foreign Client Work In Spotlight Amid DOJ Compliance Push.” The article discusses the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent heightened enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires those working on behalf of foreign entities to register as “a foreign agent” with the DOJ. According to the article, the DOJ’s enforcement push has placed pressure on law and lobbying firms and other businesses to steer clear of compliance dangers.

Jeffress told Law360 Pulse that awareness of FARA issues is “higher than ever before.” The law includes an exemption for lawyers engaged in the legal representation of a foreign principal, but that exemption is “fairly narrow, and not all of a lawyer’s work may full under it,” she said.

Jeffress added that some lawyers do not want to take on work that would require FARA registration because “they want to preserve their options for government positions or other activities that might not be open to them if they register.”

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