Law firms are trying harder than ever to understand the opaque interagency's rulings.
The Treasury Building in Washington D.C. The Treasury Department chairs the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Credit: Flickr
When Aimen Mir left his job as the most senior career official at the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in 2018, he was a hot commodity. A number of law firms were eager for his insights into an agency that has become central to the U.S.-China economic relationship.
Lawyers with Mir’s background at CFIUS, once seen as a bureaucratic backwater, haven't always been in such high demand. But as concern over Chinese acquisitions in the United States has grown, the work of the committee — an interagency panel chaired by the Treasury Department which reviews inward investment for national security concerns — has become more closely scrutinized.
“In a way, every case is a China case,” says Mir, who landed at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Washington, D.C and now advises companies on national security matters, including CFIUS.
Yet despite the power CFIUS wields, with its ability to recommend the President blocks or amends Chinese investment
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