Paul Marquardt joined Davis Polk as a partner in its Washington, D.C.-based Financial Institutions Group, the firm announced in a June 14 news release. Marquardt previously led the foreign investment and national security practice at Cleary Gottlieb, where he worked with the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security.

Former Commerce Department official Melissa Mannino joined BakerHostetler's International Trade and National Security group as a partner in its Washington office, the firm announced in a June 7 news release. Mannino formerly served in Commerce's Office of Chief Counsel for Industry and Security, including as chief of the Enforcement and Litigation Division. She most recently worked at Wilson Sonsini as a trade lawyer on export controls, economic sanctions and foreign investment issues.

The European General Court annulled the sanctions designations of two individuals -- former Ukrainian President Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych and his son, Oleksandr Viktorovych Yanukovych, according to two court decisions last week. The listings were dropped because the European Council had not “satisfied itself” that the Ukrainian authorities afforded the listed individuals proper rights of defense and judicial protection in the criminal proceedings on which the council relied in making its sanctions determination. Both were originally included on the EU's sanctions regime in 2014 as individuals “subject to criminal proceedings in Ukraine to investigate crimes in connection with the embezzlement of Ukrainian State funds and their illegal transfer outside Ukraine.”

Seven senators, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Jim Risch, R-Idaho, are asking the administration to consider removing Nicaragua from the free trade agreement with Central American countries if political conditions in that country continue to deteriorate. Risch was joined on the June 10 letter by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., John Cornyn, R-Texas, Todd Young, R-Ind. and Bill Cassidy, R-La.

Mehlman Castagnetti hired Alex Perkins, who was most recently senior manager of international government affairs at Stellantis, previously known as Fiat Chrysler, the lobbying firm said in a June 8 news release. “A top expert in trade, customs and supply chain policy, Perkins developed and executed a government relations and public affairs strategy to guide the Fortune 500 automaker through the NAFTA/USMCA renegotiations and helped lead the multi-sector USMCA business coalition,” the firm said. Before joining the auto industry, Perkins was counsel for the House Ways and Means Committee and for Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

The Peterson Institute for International Economics has hired former European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom as a nonresident senior fellow. She will host PIIE’s biweekly Trade Winds webcast, it said.

Peter Kucik, a former senior sanctions policy adviser at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined public strategy firm Mercury as managing director of its Washington, D.C., office, the firm announced in a June 9 email. At OFAC, Kucik helped establish and implement new regulatory systems for different OFAC programs, including for executive orders, license authorizations and international sanctions.

Joshua Snead, who has worked for Republicans on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee for more than five years, has been promoted to chief trade counsel, since longtime chief trade counsel Angela Ellard is headed to a deputy director-general position at the World Trade Organization. Before going to Ways and Means, Snead was an associate for King & Spalding’s International Trade Group, and worked for the National Pork Producers Council on trade policy.

Sarah Bianchi, whose nomination for a deputy U.S. trade representative role was previously announced (see 2104160066), will have the textiles, services and industrial competitiveness portfolio, and will cover Asia and Africa at the agency, if she is confirmed.

Dave Stetson, former senior lawyer at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, has joined Steptoe & Johnson's International Trade and Regulatory Compliance Group as a partner in the New York office, the firm announced in a June 1 news release. Stetson previously served as the lead sanctions lawyer for Goldman Sachs' global business lines. At OFAC, Stetson was an attorney-adviser in the Office of the Chief Counsel, where he conducted reviews for OFAC licenses and advised on the drafting of sanctions statutes, executive orders and regulations.