Kelley Drye’s International Trade Group Named Law360 Practice of the Year for Fifth Consecutive Year

For the fifth year in a row, Kelley Drye’s International Trade practice was named Law360  ​“International Trade Practice Group of the Year,” an honor that recognizes the law firms behind landmark matters that resonated throughout the legal industry over the past year.

The firm earned its fifth consecutive ​“Practice Group of the Year” designation based on impressive wins for big companies in the steel and aluminum industries as well as small American manufacturing businesses. Law360 also credited as a factor in this year’s honor that the firm filed petitions leading to the initiation of half (39 of 79) of all anti-dumping and countervailing duty investigations launched by the Department of Commerce in 2017.  In addition to filing and winning new trade cases on steel (carbon and alloy steel wire rod, cold drawn mechanical tubing) and aluminum (foil) in 2017, Kelley Drye was the ​“go to” trade remedies firm for the man-made fibers industry.  The firm filed three sets of cases covering unfairly traded fine denier and low melt polyester staple fibers and polyethylene terephthalate resin.  The Kelley Drye trade practice was also counsel to the aluminum industry in anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on Chinese common alloy aluminum sheet which were self-initiated by the Department of Commerce, the first such self-initiated investigations in 26 years.

According to the Law360 profile, Kelley Drye’s International Trade group distinguishes itself by diving deep in its client’s industries and organizations. Kelly Drye attorneys work in teams with analysts, economists and accountants from its wholly owned economic consulting firm, Georgetown Economic Services (“GES”) to obtain a deep understanding of its clients’ issues and develop solutions using the trade laws. Attorneys will frequently take tours of domestic plants and talk to senior management as well as workers concerning the impact of unfairly traded imports that threaten businesses and the jobs they support.  

The team’s holistic approach has provided effective trade relief for large multinational businesses as well as to small manufacturing companies.  For example, Kelley Drye helped Waterloo Industries Inc., a small, Missouri-based producer of tool chests and cabinets, obtain relief from a flood of dumped and subsidized  imports. According to Alan Luberda, chair of Kelley Drye’s International Trade practice, the victory for Waterloo ​“was like saving a piece of Americana.”