Bradford Ellison is an associate in the Public Policy Practice, who advocates on behalf of clients facing congressional investigations, navigating financial regulations and building digital and physical infrastructure around the world.
Bradford regularly serves as counsel to private companies and foreign governments, advising clients in matters involving the US government across a wide range of sectors, including financial services, energy, trade and bilateral investment. Bradford’s practice includes developing strategies for clients to enhance their relationships with regulators, drafting legislative proposals and comment letters to advance client interests, as well as representing clients in agency and congressional investigations. In addition to advising clients on investigations, Bradford supports clients in mitigating government scrutiny by assisting in developing compliance protocols.
Prior to joining the firm, Bradford developed a versatile background in foreign affairs and government relations, having served as a political and economic affairs intern at the US Embassy in Lomé, Togo and twice in Rep. James Clyburn’s Office of the Majority Whip.
As a law student, Bradford interned for a startup payments firm, where he helped develop a risk-based anti-money laundering (AML)/countering the financing of terrorism (CFT) framework, aligning with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards to pursue business lines in several international jurisdictions. Bradford also interned at the Corporate Council on Africa, where he further honed his substantive background in supporting US – Africa private sector and government relations.
Bradford graduated from the Howard University School of Law, where he served as a national security law research assistant and closely studied the emerging distributed ledger technology (DLT) sector, considering the potential for digital assets and other DLTs to streamline industry operations and expand financial services to unbanked and underbanked communities.
Bradford serves on the board of the Squire Patton Boggs Foundation.
Advising a publicly traded corporation in development of artificial intelligence products, in compliance with legislative and regulatory trends considering surveillance pricing.
Regularly advise international financial institutions on issues including regulatory compliance, sanctions, correspondent banking and foreign bank secrecy.
Regularly advise venture capital firms holding digital assets, prediction markets and other financial technology companies in regulatory strategies before the US Congress, Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies.
Secured a congressionally directed Department of Defense (DoD) policy shift through the National Defense Authorization Act, helping drive a 30% year-over-year increase in relevant business lines for a publicly traded environmental services company.
Represented an international public limited company in a congressional investigation before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, resulting in no further congressional action.
Represented a private university in congressional inquiries by a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, resulting in no committee action.
Obtained tariff exclusion from US trade representative through comment letter and engagement on behalf of a privately held international food and beverage company.
Obtained dismissal of receivership, operating bans, and a reduced monetary penalty of less than 1% of what the Federal Trade Commission sought in a dispute against a financial technology company.
Advised a leading apparel and pharmaceutical products original equipment manufacturer in developing a compliance checklist and supplier data sharing protocol to comply with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.