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Foreign Investment Watch Names Two Morrison Foerster Partners to Its Top Advisors List for 2025

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For the second year in a row, Charles Capito and Brandon Van Grack have both been named Top Advisors by Foreign Investment Watch....

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For the second year in a row, Charles Capito and Brandon Van Grack have both been named Top Advisors by Foreign Investment Watch. The Top Advisors list recognizes the top lawyers who advise on national security reviews of foreign investments in the United States and abroad. The editorial rankings were based on experience, reputation, clients served, first‑person interviews, references, reader recommendations, and articles published. MoFo is one of only a handful of firms with two lawyers recognized in this year’s edition.Charles Capito is a partner in both Morrison Foerster’s National Security and Government Contracts + Public Procurement practices. Charles is described by Foreign Investment Watch as a “seasoned national security expert with deep CFIUS experience” who has “been involved in securing clearances for some of the largest and most sensitive cases reviewed by CFIUS.” According to Foreign Investment Watch, Charles “has been involved in all steps of the CFIUS process, from assessing risk and presenting cases before the Committee, to negotiating mitigation measures and implementing agreements” and he is praised for acting as a “critical resource to the Foreign Investment Watch Editorial team for several years, providing perspective, context and insights both on-background and on-the-record, on topics ranging from legislative proposals to CFIUS deliberations.”Brandon Van Grack co-chairs Morrison Foerster’s National Security and Crisis Management Groups. Foreign Investment Watch highlights Brandon spending more than a decade at the DOJ handling national security and CFIUS matters, including as chief of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit, and the “myriad of insights” he has provided. It also references his involvement in “some of the nation’s most high-profile national security matters,” including leading the DOJ’s response to the Obama administration’s rollback of sanctions targeting Iran.As part of the honor, Charles and Brandon were featured in a <a href="https://foreigninvestmentwatch.com/top-advisors-2025/" target="_blank">special report prepared by Foreign Investment Watch</a>.

Foreign Investment Watch Names Two Morrison Foerster Partners to Its Top Advisors List for 2025

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Brandon L. Van Grack co-chairs Morrison Foerster’s National Security and Crisis Management groups. His practice focuses on investigations, criminal defense, and compliance matters involving export controls and sanctions, foreign investment, and cyber incidents. Brandon’s arrival to the firm follows more than a decade of service at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where he held multiple senior positions. In those positions, he helped manage the U.S. government’s tools to address perceived national security threats in China and Russia, oversaw every criminal investigation involving sanctions and export controls, and was Chief of DOJ’s Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) Unit.Brandon’s leadership and breadth of national security experience offers clients in the financial services, technology, artificial intelligence, defense, media, and communications sectors unmatched insider enforcement perspective across the entire national security landscape, including sanctions, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), export control, cybersecurity matters, and FARA.<h4>Investigations & White Collar Defense </h4>At the DOJ, Brandon led and supervised some of the government’s most significant corporate investigations and resolutions across the national security spectrum. As Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and a Trial Attorney in the Counterintelligence & Export Control Section, he worked on the resolution of almost every significant corporate matter pertaining to export control and sanctions violations in the last decade and is one of the few attorneys to have managed the DOJ’s Voluntary Self‑Disclosure Program for export control and sanctions violations. As Chief of the FARA Unit, he directed scores of investigations of companies for acting as unregistered foreign agents. He also served as Senior Assistant Special Counsel for Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, handling some of the office’s most significant matters.<h4>Sanctions, Export Control, & Foreign Investment</h4>As Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General, Brandon oversaw every criminal investigation involving export control and sanctions and led the DOJ’s response to the Obama Administration’s rollback of sanctions targeting Iran—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). As a Trial Attorney, he prosecuted more than 30 export control and sanctions cases, including first-ever cases involving North Korea, weapons of mass destruction, and the Atomic Energy Act. In the first Trump Administration, Brandon led DOJ’s review of transactions involving foreign influence before CFIUS and Team Telecom; he also managed the DOJ’s review of transactions before CFIUS during the Obama Administration.<h4>FARA & the Lobbying Disclosure Act</h4>As Chief of the FARA Unit in the first Trump Administration, and the first official to supervise all foreign influence matters across the DOJ, Brandon revitalized and transformed the enforcement of FARA. Following the DOJ’s announcement making FARA an enforcement priority, he supervised a team of 40 attorneys and staff that opened a record number of investigations, pursued a record number of enforcement actions, secured a record number of registrations, and obtained the first civil injunction involving FARA in nearly three decades. Brandon also directed the review of Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) filings for criminal violations and regulated the exemption under FARA for LDA registrants. He also wrote the book on FARA enforcement for the American Bar Association.<h4>Cybersecurity </h4>As a long-time prosecutor, including as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, Brandon directed complex cyber investigations, including multiple matters involving state-sponsored cyber attacks. He prosecuted the first person convicted as a cyberterrorist and led the investigation of an international hacking group for identity theft, extortion, and dozens of spearphishing attacks against public and private entities. He also collaborated with other government agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security, to facilitate cooperation from corporate victims and disseminate threat information.During his time at the DOJ, Brandon handled the entire range of national security matters. He led and supervised investigations and prosecutions involving espionage, economic espionage, mishandling of classified information, and theft of trade secrets. He also directed investigations involving treason, mutiny, the Neutrality Act, and the Logan Act.Brandon has been widely recognized for his deep experience in handling national security matters, and keynotes and speaks at industry conferences involving export control and sanctions, CFIUS, FARA, and political law. He has received numerous awards for his work, including the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service (2018), the FBI Director’s Award for Outstanding Cyber Investigation (2017), the Director of National Counterintelligence’s Award for Excellence (2019), the Homeland Security Investigations Executive Associate Director’s Award for Outstanding Counterproliferation Investigation (2014), and five awards from the Assistant Attorney General for National Security.Brandon regularly provides insight on national security issues and DOJ matters with national media. He is a frequent contributor on cable news, including MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Deadline: Whitehouse and All In with Chris Hayes, ABC's Good Morning America, NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, BBC News, Sky News and NHK World. He also regularly appears on NPR’s Morning Edition. He has been quoted on a variety of national security topics in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Washington Post, among others,Brandon is also a Contributing Editor to the Lawfare blog and co-host of <a href="https://www.lawfaremedia.org/podcasts-multimedia/podcast/the-regulators-series" target="_blank">The Regulators</a> podcast, where he speaks with key U.S. government regulators in the national security space, including leaders at OFAC, CFIUS, the Bureau of Industry and Security, DOJ, FinCEN, the Office of Information and Communications Technology and Services (ICTS), and FBI.

Brandon L. Van Grack

Partner

Charles Capito is a partner in both Morrison Foerster’s National Security and Government Contracts + Public Procurement practices.In the National Security space, he has significant experience counseling clients on the complex and evolving considerations related to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Charles frequently helps investors and U.S. businesses through every aspect of the CFIUS process, from understanding and allocating CFIUS risk on the front end, to presenting cases before the Committee, to negotiating appropriate mitigation measures, and ultimately to implementing and complying with mitigation agreements after the fact. Charles’ experience includes securing clearances for some of the largest and most sensitive cases reviewed by CFIUS, as well as dozens of more discreet transactions and investments.Charles regularly advises clients on critical regulatory regimes in the national security space. Whether in the context of specific transactions or day-to-day counseling, clients rely on Charles to help them comply with and operate under U.S. export controls, in particular, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). These regimes, especially the EAR, are undergoing noteworthy and complex changes, and now play key roles in other legal regimes like CFIUS. In addition, government contractors with access to classified information and their investors go to Charles to understand their obligations under the National Industrial Security Program (NISP) and, in particular, the sensitive issues presented by foreign ownership, control, or influence (FOCI) in this space.Companies operating in today’s national security space are wise to take a holistic view of the legal environment incorporating not only their legal obligations today, but also the wider geopolitical landscape to plan for the future. Charles speaks and writes regularly on these and other topics in the national security space, and has been recognized by legal publications like Chambers USA and Best Lawyers for his expertise in these areas.Charles is also a seasoned Government Contracts practitioner, assisting government contractors with a wide variety of compliance and litigation issues. This includes the numerous national security issues government contractors face when they are subject to FOCI, manufacture or export defense articles under the ITAR or sensitive dual-use technology under EAR, or are required to understand and comply with recent compliance regimes like Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. Charles also has years of experience on pre- and post-award bid protests before the Government Accountability Office and the Court of Federal Claims, and contracts claims and disputes before the boards of contract appeals, and other judicial and administrative tribunals.  Additionally, he counsels clients on prime- and subcontractor disputes, small business issues, compliance with federal procurement regulations, and government contracts mergers and acquisitions.Charles graduated from Washington & Lee University School of Law, where he served as senior articles editor of the Washington & Lee Law Review. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Duke University.