Avoiding Compliance Fatigue & Managing Through Regulatory Changes

Cristina Brayton-Lewis advises clients on a variety of regulatory matters, including compliance with export controls and economic sanctions laws and regulations administered by the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and the US State Department's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), including the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).

In particular, Cristina focuses on sanctions, including those maintained by the United States against Iran, Syria, Cuba, the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, North Korea, Russia, Venezuela and Belarus. Cristina's sanctions expertise includes matters involving designated parties on OFAC's Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List), including applications to unblock assets, as well as matters involving other restricted parties, including parties on OFAC's Sectoral Sanctions Identifications List (SSI List) and the BIS Entity List.

Cristina's practice includes compliance advice, including on classification and licensing requirements, internal investigations, and corporate due diligence and transactional matters.

In addition, Cristina advises clients regarding antiboycott requirements maintained by the Department of Commerce and the Department of the Treasury.

Beyond compliance advice, Cristina also assists with internal investigations of possible sanctions and export control violations, as well as assisting companies with any Voluntary Self-Disclosures (VSD) to the relevant government agencies.

Prior to joining White & Case, Cristina was a Special Assistant Attorney General for the District of Columbia, where she prosecuted criminal matters in Superior Court of DC.

Beth Gibson is the Managing AGC at Western Union.

Kristin joined the Boeing Company in September 2010 and is currently located in Dallas, TX. Over the last 13 years her role has included being a SME in Conflicts of Interest, Business Courtesies, M&A Ethics and Compliance Due Diligence, M&A Integration, Compliance Risk Management and Subsidiary Compliance. Kristin currently works to drive proactive risk management of the company’s highest-priority compliance risks.

Prior Work Experience: Kristin previously held the position of staff attorney, with the Wyoming State Legislature. Here she was part of a small team of attorneys that drafted legislation, staffed committees and provided legal advice to state Senators and Representatives. After relocating to the Washington, DC area, she worked as a grassroots organizer for a small non-profit promoting the growth of freight rail. This experience included organizing and lobbying at a local, state and federal level on key state and federal legislation.

Education/Certifications: Kristin holds a JD from the University of Wyoming, College of Law and was admitted as an attorney to the Wyoming State Bar in 2004. She also holds a BS in both Psychology and Sociology.

Earamichia Brown is Senior Corporate Counsel at Match Group.

Michelle is a seasoned international trade compliance leader with over 15 years of practical experience. Acting as SAP’s strategic legal advisor for all activities relating to the export of goods and services for North and South America, Michelle works closely with all SAP cloud business groups (Concur, Ariba, Fieldglass, Success Factors) and other functional teams within SAP to ensure compliance with trade laws and market requirements in dealing with customers, partners, authorities and policy makers. Michelle helps define SAP’s export control and trade sanctions operations policies and standards; develops and implements export and trade sanctions authorization strategies and advises the lines of business on export control and trade sanctions best practices while monitoring SAP’s deliveries On-Premise and in the Cloud.

Prior to joining SAP, Michelle was part of the management team of Deloitte’s Global Trade Advisory Practice Group. Client matters included the design and implementation of export compliance programs, providing guidance and solutions for proactive and remedial measures for global trade compliance; creating and leading customized export compliance training; and assisting global companies with strategic, operational and compliance matters as related to mergers and acquisitions, integration activities, trade automation, and business model optimization.

Michelle was also an Attorney within the International Trade practice group of a large law firm in Washington, DC and has considerable experience working in the Office of General Counsel and Corporate departments of large aerospace and defense companies such as Raytheon Technologies and The Boeing Company, where she provided strategic regulatory trade control guidance on licensing and compliance. She was also the Empowered Official and subject matter expert at a major University where she spent much time developing and implementing an internal export control and trade sanctions compliance program.

Michelle is an experienced international trade compliance speaker. In February, Michelle spoke virtually at the American Conference Institute/C5 European Summit on Economic Sanctions Risk & Compliance to provide a US perspective on an in-house counsel panel. In 2020, Michelle spoke virtually at CompTIA’s 14th Annual Global Trade Compliance Best Practices Conference. In 2019, Michelle spoke at the Society of Research Administrators International Annual Conference in San Francisco and was the moderator and speaker at an African Global Trade roundtable discussion Deloitte hosted with the Global African Chamber of Commerce in Chicago.

Michelle was also Publications Chair of the Society for International Affairs (SIA) 2018 Summer Conference and served on the SIA Task Force to re-write and co-author the 2018 Voluntary Disclosure Handbook second edition publication. She was also Assistant Vice President for Women in International Trade (WIIT) for Special Events and the WIIT Scholarship Trust. Michelle’s current professional and personal activities include leadership roles in SAP’s Washington DC Business Women’s Network and SAP North America’s Diversity and Inclusion Council. In August 2020, Michelle was a member of the inaugural SAP Inflection Point executive panel sharing her personal experiences and point of view on diversity and inclusion podcasts from Harvard Business Review’s Women at Work series. In October 2020, Michelle was featured in an SAP global branding video shared across SAP social media channels for SAP’s inaugural inclusive hiring virtual career open house.

Michelle is a founding member of the Syracuse University College of Law Inclusion Network to support law students of color by providing mentorship, skills training, and opportunities to celebrate and promote diversity. Michelle has also been a member of the Syracuse University Law Alumni Association Board of Directors for over four years.

Michelle received her Juris Doctorate from Syracuse University College of Law in 2005 where she was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society and an Editor for both The Labor Lawyer Journal and Journal of International Law and Commerce. Michelle received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Virginia in 2001 where she was a member of the University Judiciary Committee. She is a member of the District of Columbia, Virginia and New Jersey bars.

Michelle and her husband Brian have one young son, named Brandon and a very active two year old goldendoodle named Bailey. The family resides in Maryland.