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Robert S. Kapla
Partner
Robert Kapla serves as the firm’s Public Policy Practice Group leader. A former White House official, Robert advises sovereign governments and counsels multinational corporations on government relations around the globe.
Governments and businesses alike increasingly struggle to manage their external risks, risks that develop and evolve beyond their borders and board rooms. Robert helps clients anticipate and mitigate a range of external risks – financial, political, legal, regulatory, reputational – that are crucial to advancing their strategic objectives.
As a trusted adviser, Robert assists foreign governments on a variety of subjects including foreign investment, international trade and trade policy, project development, territorial and other disputes, and international treaty negotiations. With respect to the private sector, Robert helps multinational companies navigate the complex political and regulatory issues often associated with doing business in the US and abroad. These include matters of international law, entry into foreign markets, cross-border transactions, tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and dispute settlement.
Robert is a member of the District of Columbia, Colorado and American bar associations and the American Society of International Law. He has been a National Law Journal “DC Deal Maker of the Year” and authors and co-authors articles on the intersection of business, law and foreign policy.
Robert sits on the Board of Governors of the Middle East Institute and is active with several other organizations, including the Atlantic Council, Business Council for International Understanding, Meridian International Center and US-China Business Council. He also serves on the board of the Squire Patton Boggs Foundation, which advances the firm’s commitment to law, public policy and public service by providing fellowships to law students to work in public service organizations and government institutions around the world.
- Assisting a Latin American government in securing Congressional passage of its free trade agreement with the US.
- Providing strategic guidance to a major East Asian government concerning its relations with the US Congress.
- Helping a large US agricultural producer secure immediate duty-free treatment for its product under the pending Korea-US Free Trade Agreement – a potential US$37 million market.
- Advising an EU member government on its bilateral relations with the US.
- Providing guidance to an Eastern European government in negotiating a double tax treaty with the US.
- Representing a Latin American business chamber in its support of the US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.
- Providing pro bono counsel to a US non-profit organization working to reform the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961.
- Helping open an estimated US$20 million market by working with the US government to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers on a US industry’s exports to a Near Eastern country.
- Counseling an African government in its successful removal from the Tier 2 Watch List in the US Department of State’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report.
- Advising a major US business coalition on the design and implementation of a nationwide campaign that resulted in Congressional passage of the “Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006”.
- Advising a non-profit Afghan-American organization working to strengthen the US-Afghanistan partnership.
Education
- University of Denver, Sturm College of Law, J.D.
- Indiana University, B.S.
Admissions
- District of Columbia, 2005
- Colorado, 2002
Courts
- U.S. Court of International Trade
Memberships & Affiliations
- District of Columbia Bar Association
- Colorado Bar Association
- American Bar Association
- American Society of International Law
- “D.C. Deal maker of the Year,” National Law Journal, August 2013.
- Quoted, “Money Talks: Lobbyists Pulling the Strings on Capitol Hill,” The National Law Journal, January 27, 2022.
- Co-author, “Implications of Trump Budget Blueprint for US Stature Abroad,” Law360, March 2017.
- Co-author, “TPP & TTIP bring change closer,” Speciality Chemicals Magazine, April 2016.
- Co-author, “Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall…,” Country Promotion Strategies Guide, Washington Diplomat, November 2012.
- “Lobbying Street,” GQ China, Katherine Lewis, June 2012.
- Speaker, “How US Listed Chinese Companies Can Defend Against Class Action Lawsuits, SEC Investigations, and Short-Seller Attacks in the United States,” seminar hosted by the Association of US Listed Chinese Companies, Shanghai, China, July 21, 2011.
- Co-author, “Guiding Foreign Governments Through the Complex Intersection of Business, Law, and Foreign Policy: The Rising Importance of Washington Counsel,” Business Law Brief American University Washington College of Law, Spring/Summer 2010.