Caroline Grace Howard

Caroline Howard is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office and a member of the firm's International Trade Group. Ms. Howard focuses her practice on international regulatory and compliance matters as well as a broad range of corporate issues, including foreign direct investment, export controls, sanctions and customs matters.

Ms. Howard represents clients from start to finish in national security reviews before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), including conducting preliminary risk assessments, drafting notice or declaration filings for CFIUS review, communicating with CFIUS case officers and facilitating mitigation agreements if deemed necessary. Ms. Howard also reviews and advises on CFIUS-related issues in deal documents for the firm's Corporate, M&A and Securities Practice Group.

In the constantly and rapidly evolving export controls and sanctions space, Ms. Howard counsels companies regarding compliance with a broad range of cross-border legal and regulatory matters, including U.S. and multilateral economic sanctions as well as export controls such as International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). In addition, she represents companies before the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) and U.S. Department of State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) to obtain licenses necessary to consummate investment, financial and export transactions.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Howard practiced international trade law, with a primary focus in foreign ownership issues. In addition to overseeing CFIUS filings across various sectors including telecommunications, healthcare and defense, she managed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) reviews, guiding clients through varying FDI control regimes by coordinating with local counsel in non-U.S. jurisdictions to determine whether a proposed transaction triggered any FDI filings outside the U.S. Further, she helped draft and submit required FDI filings in Italy, France and Vietnam.

Before focusing her practice on international trade matters, Ms. Howard practiced telecommunications law. She has experience advising international service providers entering the U.S. market on regulatory due diligence and foreign ownership issues, helping clients navigate the Committee for the Assessment of Foreign Participation in the United States Telecommunications Services Sector (Team Telecom) review process, and representing international telecommunications licensees in Federal Communications Commission (FCC) enforcement and revocation proceedings.

In addition to earning her undergrad and law degrees, Ms. Howard also has earned dual masters' degrees in 2017, with certificate program in international business. The competitive program for business graduates focused on global business and management, and building cross-cultural competencies through immersion and collaboration with three internationally distinguished institutions:  University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce (M.S., Global Commerce), Lingnan University (Certificate in International Management) and Ramon Llull University's Esade Business School (M.Sc., Global Strategic Management).