deKieffer & Horgan - Attorneys (United States)

Donald E. deKieffer
Email: ddekieffer@dhlaw.com

Donald deKieffer has practiced in the field of international trade regulation law for more than twenty years. A graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Mr. deKieffer served in the Senate Republican Party Committee as a foreign trade specialist, and entered private practice in Washington, D.C. in 1974. In 1981, Mr. deKieffer joined the Executive Office of the President as General Counsel to the United States Trade Representative where he served until entering private practice in 1983. He is a frequent speaker on international trade regulatory issues, and the author of more than two hundred articles and five books.

J. Kevin Horgan
Email: khorgan@dhlaw.com

Kevin Horgan has been engaged in the practice of international trade law since 1981 when he began his career as a law clerk for the Chief Judge of the United States Court of International Trade. From 1983 to 1987, Mr. Horgan served as a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, representing the United States government in international trade litigation. He has represented clients before a wide variety of government agencies, including: the U.S. Customs Service; the International Trade Commission; the U.S. Trade Representative; the International Trade Administration; the Office of Foreign Assets Control, and various committees of the Congress. Mr. Horgan is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and New York Law School. He is admitted to the practice of law in New York, the District of Columbia, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Mr. Horgan is a member of the Customs and International Trade Bar Association and Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association's Customs Law Committee.

Frank A. Orban, III
Email: forban@dhlaw.com

Frank A. Orban, III has been engaged in the international law and business since 1968. His experience covers a wide range foreign trade and investment law areas relating to the US, Eastern and Western Europe, the former Soviet Union, China and Africa. He has held senior legal positions in U.S. and foreign multinational corporations, including News International plc, London and Armstrong World Industries, Inc. In addition, he has served in the US and foreign governments, including being appointed by the Reagan Administration to a diplomatic post as one of the American negotiators in the U.S.-Soviet Nuclear Arms and Space Talks in Geneva. He is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a formerly taught international and comparative law at the University of Virginia Law School. Mr. Orban is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, the US Supreme Court, the US Court of International Trade, and the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He was also a former member of the US State Department’s Private International Law Advisory Committee, the Trade Policy Committee of the US National Association of Manufacturers and Board Member of the American Corporate Counsel Association as well as founder and chair of its International Legal Affairs Committee. As a recognized expert on China, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe he has lectured and written extensively and has been an advisor to the US and foreign governments on various foreign trade, investment and development issues.

A. David Lafer
Email: adlafer@dhlaw.com

A. David Lafer has been engaged in the practice of international trade law since 1978 when he began his career as an attorney for the United States Customs Service, Office of Regulations and Rulings and, subsequently, as an Assistant Regional Counsel in Chicago, Illinois. From 1981 to 2003, he served as a trial attorney and, subsequently, as a Senior Trial Counsel, in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, supervising and personally representing the United States in civil and appellate litigation, including the defense of U.S. international trade policy, the prosecution of claims for the recovery of monies and penalties fraudulently diverted from the U.S. Treasury, and the protection of U.S. financial and commercial interests under international contracts and treaties. Mr. Lafer is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University (B.S. 1974, cum laude) and John Marshall College of Law of the Cleveland State University (J.D. 1977). He is admitted to the practice of law in Ohio and the District of Columbia. Mr. Lafer is a member of the International Trade Section, American Bar Association, and is admitted to practice before the United States Court of International Trade, United States Court of Federal Claims and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

John J. Kenkel
Email: jkenkel@dhlaw.com

John Kenkel has practiced in the field of international trade law regulation for over 15 years. Mr. Kenkel conducted and supervised international trade investigations for over eight years, while he was with the U.S. Customs Service and the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. He has been in private practice since 1988, representing both U.S. and foreign companies. He has actively participated in over 70 such proceedings. He has represented clients before all U.S. government international trade agencies, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. Court of International Trade. Mr. Kenkel has a B.A. from Georgetown University, a M.A. in International Economics from the Catholic University of America, and a J.D. from George Mason University Law School. He is admitted to the practice of law in Washington, D.C. He has written a number of articles on international trade.

Merritt R. Blakeslee
Email: mblakeslee@dhlaw.com

Mr. Blakeslee has practiced in the field of international law and international trade law regulation since 1991. He has represented clients before a wide variety of government agencies, including the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the International Trade Administration of the Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of State, and the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Mr. Blakeslee also specializes in international commercial litigation and has represented a number of U.S. and foreign claimants, including the largest U.S. corporate claimant, in bringing claims against the Government of Iraq before the United Nations Compensation Commission for losses arising from Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Mr. Blakeslee is a 1991 graduate of the University of Georgia Law School. He also holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Tulane University and the degree of licence-ès-lettres from the Université de Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France. He is admitted to the practice of law in the District of Columbia and Georgia. He is the co-editor of the three-volume series entitled National Treaty Law and Practice, published by the American Society of International Law, 2002, and the editor of The Language of Trade: A Glossary of Terms Frequently Used in the International Trading System, published by the U.S. Information Agency (2000).