John E.
Smith
John E. Smith is co-chair of Morrison & Foerster’s National Security practice. Prior to joining the firm in July 2018, Mr. Smith served as the Director of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for the previous 3 years, as well as its Deputy Director and Associate Director for the preceding 8 years. Concurrent with serving as OFAC Director, Mr. Smith also served as acting Under Secretary for the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at Treasury from January to June 2017. As Director of OFAC, Mr. Smith oversaw all aspects of the U.S. government’s economic sanctions efforts, imposing sanctions on heads of state, countries, and illicit actors; supervising the investigation, preparation, and settlement of enforcement cases against dozens of major financial institutions and companies around the world for hundreds of millions of dollars; and developing innovative sanctions policies to address evolving U.S. national security and foreign policy priorities. Prior to his work at Treasury, Mr. Smith served as an independent expert for the United Nations Security Council’s Al-Qaida and the Taliban Sanctions Committee and as a trial attorney at the United States Department of Justice.