D. Michael Kaye is the US lead of our Commodities & Shipping Group and a partner in the International Trade Practice, based in our Washington DC office. He has more than 25 years of experience in international trade remedy (antidumping and countervailing duty proceedings), international trade law and policy, international commercial matters (including international contracts and joint ventures) and resolution of international disputes. As a leader of the Commodities & Shipping Group, he has extensive experience working with global commodity traders, shippers and banks.
Michael concentrates on safeguarding clients’ trade and commercial interests. He has handled complex international trade matters around the world in law firms, as a US government lawyer and in senior in-house counsel positions. He has extensive experience in trade remedy proceedings (antidumping and countervailing duty investigations, and safeguards investigations), customs and economic sanctions matters and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act investigations. Michael’s extensive international experience is a vital asset to his practice. He has lived and worked a large portion of his life overseas, including in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East, and he graduated from a Japanese high school. He speaks fluent Japanese and Spanish.
Prior to joining the firm, Michael most recently served as the global director of business management for a Chicago-based international law firm, where he worked in conjunction with practice group and firm leadership on strategy and planning, financial performance, people performance and practice operations globally.
Prior to that, Michael served as the chief counsel of the largest business unit at one of the world’s largest food and agricultural commodity trading and processing companies, where he oversaw all grain origination and trading assets worldwide, as well as the company’s transportation and logistics assets and a number of its specialty units. During his tenure, Michael was the senior lawyer for a business unit with US$35 billion in annual revenue. He also oversaw the international legal matters and international trade and commercial issues, including its international arbitration matters. Prior to this, Michael had a lengthy career in international affairs, first as an active-duty lawyer with the US military specializing in international law, a tenure that included tours of duty in Korea, Panama, Honduras and the Pentagon, and then as an international trade lawyer in the Office of General Counsel at the US Department of Commerce.
Following his government service, he joined the Washington DC office of a large global law firm, where he was a partner in the International Trade Practice. Between 2003 and 2012, while still affiliated with the firm, Michael relocated to Chile, where he spent nine years as an investor in and director of several food- and food-ingredient production companies and was counsel to an international law firm based in Santiago.
In his work with global commodity companies, Michael helps provide or coordinate the full range of legal services on all aspects of international trade and shipping across all commodity sectors, including advising and assisting with contracts and structuring transactions, corporate matters, trade finance, litigation and arbitration, regulatory or policy matters, environmental law, derivatives and projects.
