Charles S. Levy

Partner / Washington

Charles Levy focuses on legal and policy issues covering a broad range of international trade, investment, finance, economic sanctions, and export control matters.

Mr. Levy is experienced in devising and implementing strategies for using trade laws, international litigation, and international negotiations to achieve business objectives, and in resolving disputes between companies and governments. In the area of international negotiations, he has worked on every major U.S. bilateral, regional and multilateral negotiation since the GATT Tokyo Round; and in the area of U.S. international trade and investment laws, he has worked on every major U.S. trade act since the Trade Act of 1974.  In the area of international litigation, he has worked on major antidumping, countervailing duty, safeguard, Section 337, Section 301, and WTO cases.

Mr. Levy was a partner at WilmerHale until 2009, where he chaired the firm’s International Trade Practice Group. After retiring from WilmerHale, he was a founding partner in Cassidy Levy Kent.

Government Service

Mr. Levy served as Counsel to the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Foreign Economic Policy, Legislative Assistant to Senator Adlai E. Stevenson, Legislative Assistant to Congressman John C. Culver, and Legal Advisor to Commissioner Paula Stern at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Mr. Levy has also served on several U.S. government trade and investment advisory committees, including the U.S. Trade Representative’s Advisory Committees on Intellectual Property Rights, Investment and Services, and Investment Policy, where he served as Chairman of the Task Force on Bilateral Investment Treaties, and the U.S. Department of State’s Investment Advisory Committee and its Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy.

Honors

Recognized repeatedly in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business; Chambers Global: The World’s Leading LawyersThe Best Lawyers in America; and Washington D.C.’s Best Lawyers.

Professional Affiliations

Mr. Levy is a member of the Board of Directors of the Coalition for Integrity (CFI), a non-governmental organization dedicated to combating international and domestic bribery and corruption.  (CFI is the successor organization to Transparency International USA, where he was also a member of the Board of Directors.)  He has also served as a member of the Executive Council of the American Society of International Law, and as a member of the International Chamber of Commerce’s Standing Committee on Extortion and Bribery. Mr. Levy was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School from 1982-1984.

Mr. Levy has also served on a wide variety of Study Groups under the auspices of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Center for Strategic and International Studies; and was a member of the German Marshall Fund’s Transatlantic Task Force on Trade and Investment and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s International Competition Policy Expert Group.

Recent Speaking Engagements

  • “Roundtable on International Trade and Climate Change,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, December 2020
  • “Trade Promotion Authority Working Group,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, July-December 2020.
  • “Revitalizing the Rules-Based International Trading System: The WTO or a New Frontier?,” Council on Foreign Relations, May 2020.
  • “The USMCA:  A Paradigm for Trade Agreements,”  Council on Foreign Relations Roundtable, February 2020.
  • “Trade, National Security, Protectionism and the Politicization of Tariffs,” Georgetown Law Institute of International Economic Law, February 2020.
  • “WTO Appellate Body,” Council on Foreign Relations Roundtable, October 2019
  • “WTO’s Future,” Center for Strategic and International Studies Roundtable, May 2019
  • International Policy Roundtable, Center for Strategic and International Studies, March 2019.
  • “Congressional View of Trade Enforcement,” Center for Strategic and International Studies Roundtable, June 2018
  • “U.S.-Japan Trade,” Center for Strategic and International Studies Roundtable, June 2018
  • “Forward Thinking in Trade Policy 2018,” Georgetown University Law Center International Trade Update Panel, March 2018.
  • “WTO Trade Enforcement,” Center for Strategic and International Studies Panel, December 2017
  • “The Trade Law Tool Box,” Washington International Trade Association Panel, March 2017.
  • “Promoting the Rule of Law in the Asia-Pacific Region,” Asia Society Panel, March 2017.
  • “Should the United States Shift Toward Reciprocity?,” Workshop on U.S. Policy on Investment, Council on Foreign Relations, January 2017.
  • “Old Rules, New Problems,” Conference on the WTO at 20,” Harvard University Law School, April 2016.
  • “What the WTO Needs to Address to Stay Relevant,” Academy of WTO Law and Policy Panel, Georgetown University Law Center, November 2014 and November 2015.
  • “US-EU Free Trade Agreement: Recipe for Growth or Road to Nowhere?,” CATO Institute Panel, February 2013.
  • “Emerging Issues: Investment,” Academy of WTO Law & Policy Panel, Georgetown University Law Center, November 2011.
  • “The China Model: Next Generation Trade and Investment Solutions — Industrial Policy and State-Owned Enterprises,” AmCham China Conference on the China Model and the U.S. Dilemma Panel, May 2011.

Publications

  • International Competition Policy Expert Group:  Report and Recommendations, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, March 2017.
  • A New Era for Transatlantic Trade Leadership: A Report from the Transatlantic Task Force on Trade and Investment, German Marshall Fund of the United States, February 2012.

Education

  • J.D., George Washington University Law School, with honors
  • B.A., Boston University, with Distinction in Government

Bar Memberships

  • District of Columbia
  • United States Court for International Trade