Timothy C. Brightbill

Tim is one of the nation’s leading international trade law and policy attorneys, representing U.S. industries and companies on all aspects of import trade remedies (such as antidumping (AD) law and countervailing duty (CVD) law), tariffs, global trade policy and trade negotiations, renewable energy and climate change policy, digital trade, international telecommunications, and customs enforcement matters. He has taught international trade law as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center for more than 20 years. 

Tim has been consistently rated as highly regarded among the nation’s leading lawyers for international trade by Chambers USA and The Legal 500 for more than a decade. Clients told Chambers USA he is “an expert on trade litigation” (2023), has “an encyclopedic understanding of the trade issues affecting our company” (2020), and “a penetrating intelligence and deep knowledge of dense trade issues" (2017). He is one of a small number of “Global Elite Thought Leaders" in North America as chosen by the International Who's Who of Trade & Customs Lawyers.

Representative Matters

• Lead counsel to domestic solar manufacturers, who in 2018 won the first global safeguards case filed in the United States in more than 15 years. In 2012, won the largest U.S. trade remedy cases ever filed against China and the first cases involving renewable energy products, and also won follow-up cases against China and Taiwan in 2015.
• Lead counsel to the Coalition of American Manufacturers of Mobile Access Equipment, the Coalition of American Millwork Producers, the American Line Pipe Producers Association, the Coalition for Fair Trade in Hardwood Plywood, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing, the American Manufacturers of Multilayered Hardwood Flooring, and the Association of American School Paper Suppliers.
• Represents numerous U.S. industries in trade litigation, tariff, and trade policy matters, including solar cells and panels, mobile access equipment, wood mouldings, wooden cabinets and vanities, steel and steel products, hardwood plywood, large diameter line and structural pipe, multilayered wood flooring, lined paper school supplies, heavy forged hand tools, and steel scrap.
• Represents numerous clients before the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) and the U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC), and in more than 70 oral arguments at the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
• Represents numerous clients in matters involving Section 232 national security investigations.
• Regularly advises and represents clients before Congress and the Executive Branch on potential changes to U.S. trade laws, trade remedies, and trade negotiations, including the World Trade Organization (WTO), U.S. Free Trade Agreements (FTA), and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BIT).
• Serves as vice-chair of the Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Services and Finance Industries and advises service industries and provides the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. government with industry advice on WTO, FTA, and BIT negotiations with major U.S. trading partners.
• Represented U.S. industry coalition supporting the USTR in three successful WTO cases challenging China's raw material and rare earth export restrictions.
• Edited "Trade Remedies for Global Companies," an American Bar Association book on the U.S. and foreign trade remedies.

Professional Experience

• Vice-Chair (2013-Present) and Member (2007-Present), Industry Trade Advisory Committee on Services and Finance Industries
• Adjunct Professor, International Trade Law and Regulation, Georgetown University Law Center (2002-Present)
• Faculty Member, Georgetown Law Global Trade Academy (previously the Academy of WTO Law and Policy) (2006-Present)
• Legislative and Legal Counsel, U.S. Representative John J. LaFalce, Chair of the House Committee on Small Business (1994-1995)

Affiliations

• American Bar Association (ABA), Section of International Law
  • Senior Advisor, International Trade Committee (2011-Present)
  • ABA Liaison and Chair to Industry Trade Advisory Committee (ITAC) 10 (2007-Present)
  • Division Chair and Council Member (2005-2007)
  • Deputy to Section Chair (2004-2005)
  • Chair, International Trade Committee (2002-2004)
• Federal Circuit Bar Association (FCBA)
  • Board of Directors (2020-Present)
• The Committee to Support U.S. Trade Laws (CSUSTL)
  • Chairman, CSUSTL Executive Committee (2019-2020)
• Executive Leadership Committee, Lawyers Have Heart, American Heart Association (2010-Present)
• Site Coordinator and Volunteer, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless 
• Georgetown Journal of International Law, Alumni Advisory Board

Recognitions

• Named by The Legal 500 US as a "Leading Lawyer" (2021-2022) and recognized in the "Hall of Fame" (2023) in International Trade 
• Named one of the “Global Elite Thought Leaders" in North America by the International Who's Who of Trade & Customs Lawyers (2016-2022)
• Listed by Chambers Global as one of the "Leaders in Their Field" for his work in Trade Remedies & Trade Policy (2012-2023)
• Named by Law360 as an International Trade MVP (2014, 2017, 2021)
• Listed by Chambers USA as one of "America's Leading Lawyers for Business" in International Trade: Trade Remedies & Trade Policy (2012-2024) and "America's Leading Lawyers for Business - Up and Coming" (2010-2011)
• Included in Legal Media Group's Expert Guides: Guide to the World's Leading International Trade and Shipping Lawyers (2008-Present)
• Included in the International Who's Who of Trade & Customs Lawyers (2010-2012, 2015-2016, 2021)
• Named one of DC's "Top 100 Lawyers" (2014, 2019, 2023) and "Super Lawyers" for International (2013-2020, 2022-2023) by Super Lawyers magazine
• Named one of “Washington’s Top Lawyers” by Washingtonian magazine (2024)