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no bull and the aftermath.

Hello and welcome to the LawFair podcast. I'm Raphaela Weikman. A few weeks ago I sat down

with Mark Plotkin, a partner in Covington and Burling's Washington DC office. We talked about his

practice as a national security lawyer working in the private sector. Among other matters he

represents clients before the committee on foreign investment in the United States. We also spoke

about issues currently in the news that highlight the intersection of private industry with national

security matters.

I'm sure that many of our listeners are aware that national security law isn't just practiced by

government attorneys, but many people think of it just as criminal defense work. What does it

mean in your case, you know, you have a very unique practice? What does it mean to practice national

security law in the private sector?

Well thanks, thanks for coming to my office to talk about this today. It's, you call it a unique

practice. I'd say, I guess I would call it an unusual practice that is shared by, you know,

a small but significant bar here in Washington. Number of very good firms and very good lawyers

who do this kind of work. Some of whom have a private government experience and others who don't.

But in every case, national security practice and the private sector involves working with private

sector clients who end up having to interface with the federal government in one way or another

with respect to the application of national security laws. And it comes up in many different

contexts. The one that I tend to focus on here myself has to do with cross-border transactions,

...