Doug Jacobson is the founding partner of the Washington, DC-based international trade law firm of Jacobson Burton Kelley PLLC. Professor Jacobson has more than 25 years of experience representing a wide range of U.S. and non-U.S. companies on export control and international trade issues and serves as principal outside international trade counsel to a number of U.S. and non U.S.-based multinational financial institutions and companies in the electronic, manufacturing, chemical, defense, medical, oil and gas, aerospace and software sectors. 

With respect to export matters, he counsels clients on compliance with U.S. and multilateral regimes governing the export of dual-use items, software, technology, defense articles and humanitarian products. He assists companies in understanding and navigating the complex rules set forth in the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and the various sanctions regulations administered by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Professor Jacobson also represents companies in enforcement proceedings conducted by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security and Office of Antiboycott Compliance, the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls and OFAC.

He served as the BIS and OFAC approved independent auditor in one of the largest criminal and civil export controls and sanctions enforcement cases brought by those agencies.

He is a frequent speaker on export controls and sanctions matters and is the author of a number of articles on international trade compliance topics. He the editor and publisher of International Trade Law News, a Web-based compilation of news and information on export controls, sanctions and other international trade issues. He is active in a number of international trade organizations and serves as general counsel to the National Council on International Trade Development and is a member of the Board of Governors of the American Association of Exporters and Importers. He has been a visiting professor on U.S. export controls and sanctions at the University of Turin (Italy) and University of Münster (Germany).

He is ranked by the Chambers and Partners' Global and USA publications as a leading export controls and sanctions attorney. He is also listed in Who's Who Legal as a leading international trade attorney.

Professor Jacobson received a B.A. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin and a Juris Doctorate from the American University’s Washington College of Law, where he was an editor of the American University Law Review. He is a member of the District of Columbia and Maryland Bars and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.