Stephen R. Heifetz, Esq.
Stephen Heifetz is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he advises clients on laws and policies at the intersection of international business and national security.
Stephen previously served in the U.S. government on the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). As a CFIUS practitioner for more than a dozen years, Stephen has been involved in more than 1,000 CFIUS matters and has been recognized as a leading CFIUS and national security expert by Chambers USA, Chambers Global, and Washingtonian.
Stephen serves as CFIUS counsel to the National Venture Capital Association and regularly helps U.S. companies and foreign investors determine whether to make a CFIUS filing, allocate CFIUS risk in transaction documents, navigate the CFIUS process, and negotiate risk mitigation measures if needed to obtain CFIUS clearance.
Stephen also advises clients on other matters of legal compliance and political risk and defends companies facing investigations and government enforcement actions. He represents clients with regard to anti-money laundering laws administered by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and other financial regulators, as well as economic sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control and by the UN Security Council. In addition, he has experience with anti-corruption and export control laws, with security screening rules applicable to visa applicants as well as airlines and other transportation companies, and with codes of conduct applicable to private security providers.
Prior to joining Wilson Sonsini, Stephen was a partner at a multinational law firm based in Washington, D.C., where he co-chaired that firm's international regulation and compliance group. From 2006 to 2010, he served as a senior official in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Office of Policy Development. In this role, he served as DHS's daily representative to CFIUS and also worked with DHS's agencies—including the Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement—to develop policies on a range of issues.
After finishing law school, Stephen worked for the Central Intelligence Agency and later served as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section.
Stephen previously was as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and he has published articles in many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Law360.