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Hal Eren is the founding and managing partner of The Eren Law Firm and the lead attorney in The Firm’s widely-respected corporate and economic sanctions practice. He has advised on numerous transactions, resolved several sanctions disputes, successfully settled enforcement actions, and obtained licenses and interpretations that are favorable to his clients. He possesses a unique and extensive wealth of knowledge and experience, which he brings to each case. With a practical and detail-oriented approach, Mr. Eren provides clients with unparalleled legal guidance and advice, always drawing on the distinctive attributes of each client and the corresponding case.
Mr. Eren is extremely knowledgeable with respect to corporate matters, economic sanctions, export controls, anti-money laundering laws, laws governing business integrity, and related dispute resolution. Due to his seven and a half years at the U.S. Treasury, Mr. Eren has proven expertise in handling U.S. economic sanctions and U.S. anti-money laundering laws imposed on U.S. and non-U.S. banks, financial services companies, marine insurers, and shipowners. He also advises clients on compliance, defends clients in enforcement actions, and manages dispute resolution.
Mr. Eren represents clients in court and before the following entities: tribunals dealing with the arbitration of international investor-state disputes, such as the World Bank’s ICSID, and in other arbitrations; the U.S. Treasury, State, Justice, and Commerce departments; U.S. federal banking regulators; the New York State Department of Financial Services and other state banking regulators; and U.S. federal prosecutors.
From 1992 to 2000, Mr. Eren served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”), the agency of the U.S. government responsible for administering U.S. economic sanctions. When he left OFAC, Mr. Eren held the title and position of Senior Sanctions Advisor.
Mr. Eren’s diverse portfolio at the OFAC varied by country and subject matter. The different sanctions programs he worked on included Libya, Yugoslavia, Iran, and Cuba. His relevant subjects were cases involving international payments and clearing, complex international financial and trade transactions or arrangements, international loan syndications, and large-amount frozen assets. Notably, Mr. Eren spearheaded all policy and decisions affecting the apportionment among the successor states of the London Club Debt of Yugoslavia. At OFAC, he contributed to the formulation and drafting of several orders, regulations, and guidelines. He assisted in drafting presidential executive orders, including those imposing sanctions against Yugoslavia and Iran; contributed to draft UN resolutions; and was part of the team that drafted the initial OFAC regulations governing sanctions against Iran, such as the Iranian Transactions Regulations.
Additionally, Mr. Eren authored legal interpretations involving jurisdiction and third-country trade. He participated in the adjudication of cases on exceptions to and exemptions from sanctions prohibitions and requirements. Mr. Eren took part in drafting Action Forcing Event memoranda for Treasury upper echelon policymakers. He also participated in interagency deliberations involving the imposition of civil penalties for sanctions violations.
From 2000 to 2002, Mr. Eren was a practicing lawyer at the Washington, D.C. office of Clifford Chance, where he utilized his strong expertise to advise and represent clients, lawyers of the firm, and the firm itself on economic sanctions and other U.S. financial and international trade regulatory matters.
Mr. Eren brings more than 10 years of business and transactional experience and know-how, gained in a variety of professional settings, to his practice of law. Prior to joining the Treasury in 1992, Mr. Eren served as an executive of a real estate and infrastructure development company, an executive of a U.S. bank, and an executive of an international merchant bank in Madrid, Spain, focused on marketing and financing significant projects in the civilian and military sectors in Europe and the Middle East.
Mr. Eren holds a J.D. from the American University’s Washington College of Law. He received a B.A. in economics and another B.A. in government and politics from the University of Maryland. He is admitted to the bars of New York, Washington, D.C., and Maryland.