Mr. Welch provides operational and transactional guidance to Fortune 500 companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses, involving activities in virtually every major industry and country. He routinely advises Firm clients regarding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and other anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws; sanctions administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control, export controls administered by the Bureau of Industry and Security and Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, import/customs, anti-boycott and other international trade and investment matters; the Patriot Act, Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering laws; and various federal and state consumer and financial regulatory regimes. When necessary, he advises clients in interactions with regulatory and enforcement agencies—including the Justice, Treasury, State, Commerce and Defense Departments, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other federal and state agencies—and in internal investigations around the world, including in China, Russia, India and the Middle East.

Mr. Welch provides practical advice regarding inbound and outbound investment and other cross-border transactions, as well as domestic financial regulatory issues. He has worked on numerous mergers, acquisitions and other transactions in recent years, advising governments, financial institutions and strategic buyers and sellers, as well as private equity companies, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and other investors. He has experience working with both lenders and borrowers on debt financings, underwriters and issuers on equity offerings, and investors and managers in the fund formation context.

Mr. Welch received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and his B.A., with majors in Economics, Political Science and Psychology, and a minor in Philosophy, from the University of Buffalo. Mr. Welch previously worked at the Supreme Court of the United States and in the Chicago office of another international law firm.

Mr. Welch has performed pro bono work for the International Senior Lawyers Project, Oxfam, Plan International, nonprofit micro lenders, the Innocence Project, Election Protection, Save the Children, the Children’s Law Center and Libraries Without Borders. He and his wife are resource/foster parents in Arlington County, Virginia.