Practice guide
Trade and customs work starts when a company begins importing under its own name or opens a new trade lane. Find those companies, learn the work each moment creates and who hires counsel, and open with a truthful written note.
Book a demoLast updated September 28, 2026
The short answer
Business development for a trade and customs practice starts with two moments. A company begins importing under its own name, which puts the importer's reasonable-care duty on it, or an established importer opens a new trade lane, which raises fresh origin and trade remedy questions. Clean finds companies at those moments and names who hires outside counsel and who can introduce you.
A company that buys from a U.S. distributor, or from a foreign supplier that delivers duty paid, usually never deals with customs itself. Someone else clears the goods and carries the importer's legal exposure. The day the company starts importing under its own name, that exposure moves onto its own books.
Under 19 U.S.C. 1484, the importer of record, in person or through an agent it authorizes in writing, must use reasonable care to make entry and to declare the value, classification and rate of duty of its goods. A licensed customs broker commonly prepares the entry, but the duty sits with the importer of record. And 19 U.S.C. 1592 sets civil penalties for material false statements or omissions made through fraud, gross negligence or negligence.
That is why a first-year importer is often a better prospect than a company that has imported for decades. The veteran typically has a compliance manager, a broker it trusts and a trade firm it already calls. The newcomer may have a broker it hired last month and an owner who has never heard the phrase reasonable care. The same pattern runs through every moment that creates legal work for a law firm: the work follows a change in what the company does.
For a first-time importer, every item below is new work, and often nobody inside the company has done it before. That is where outside counsel earns a place.
A company that moves production to another country, or adds a second source, is not new to importing. It still has new legal questions, and the broker and procedures built for the old lane may not raise them. For a practice whose clients are established importers, this is often the easier conversation, because the company already knows what trade counsel does.
Duty rates can change quickly. The emergency tariffs imposed in 2025 went through several increases, reductions and other modifications, as the Supreme Court recounted when it held, on February 20, 2026, that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the President to impose tariffs. The opinions also discuss other statutes, such as Section 232 and Section 301, that authorize duties on their own terms. The principal dissent noted that the Court said nothing about whether, or how, the government should return money importers paid under IEEPA.
The business development lesson is about dates. A tariff alert goes stale fast, so date each one, name the authority it covers, and update or retire it when the rule changes. Check where refunds and any later duties stand on the day you write, instead of repeating an old alert. Keep client names and matters out of alerts unless the client consents: ABA Formal Opinion 480 says public commentary may not reveal information relating to a representation, even when that information is already public.
When a company also ships goods out, a second body of rules applies. Items in the United States and U.S.-origin items abroad are generally subject to the Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR 734.3), and releasing technology or source code subject to them to a foreign person inside the United States is a deemed export (15 CFR 734.13). Treasury's sanctions rules sit in 31 CFR chapter V. For an importer that starts selling abroad, export classification, license questions and buyer screening are all new work.
The buyer changes with company size and with how the company came to import. Trade compliance often sits under supply chain, logistics or finance rather than legal, so the person who feels the problem may not be the one who signs the engagement letter. Write for both. The in-house side is covered in the general counsel role, and the selection process in how companies choose outside counsel.
Illustrative situations, not real companies. Who hires counsel varies by company.
| Situation | Legal work it creates | Who usually hires counsel |
|---|---|---|
| Example: a consumer products brand stops buying from a U.S. distributor and imports under its own name | Classification and valuation review, marking, bond and records setup, a written compliance procedure | Owner or CEO, often with the CFO |
| Example: a manufacturer moves a component source from one country to another | Origin analysis, trade remedy scope check, marking changes, updated supplier contracts | VP of supply chain or logistics, with the general counsel signing off |
| Example: a company with in-house lawyers adds suppliers in a region with forced labor risk | Supply chain tracing, supplier contract terms, a plan for detained goods | General counsel or chief legal officer |
| Example: an importer starts selling abroad | Export classification, license questions, sanctions screening, deemed export controls for foreign staff | General counsel, or the owner at a smaller company |
| Example: a company finds an error in its past entries | Internal review and a possible prior disclosure | General counsel or CFO |
ABA Model Rule 7.3(b) bars soliciting work by live person-to-person contact when a significant motive is pecuniary gain. One exception covers people who routinely use the type of legal services offered for business purposes, and the owner of a first-year importer may never have hired trade counsel, so do not assume it applies. California has no business-purposes exception, and Florida treats cold calls as prohibited solicitation. The ABA comment points to mail and email as the alternative, so default to a truthful written note, not a call or a real-time chat, and never have staff or a marketing firm make contact you could not make yourself (ABA Formal Opinion 501, applying Rules 5.3 and 8.4(a)).
Written notes have rules too. Rule 7.3(c) bars soliciting someone who has made known they do not want to be solicited by you, or soliciting through coercion, duress or harassment, and Rule 7.1 bars misleading statements, including anything suggesting the reader must act when no action is required. Fear is the easy pitch in trade work, so the trap is specific: a note that reads like a government notice, opens with penalties, or implies you have already analyzed the reader's situation.
State rules add more. Florida bars messages made to resemble legal documents. Unless an email goes only to current or former clients, family or other lawyers, Florida requires "Advertisement" as the first word of the subject line, a statement of your background, training and experience that includes experience with similar matters, submission to the Bar for review at least 20 days before first use unless exempt, and, for a message prompted by a specific occurrence, a statement of how you learned of it. California requires an "Advertisement" label on some written solicitations. Check your own state's rules and ethics counsel; this page is not legal or ethics advice.
What works is short and useful: who you are, what your practice does for first-year importers, and something they can use with no strings attached, such as a plain-English summary of an importer's obligations. Run conflicts before any note goes out, because a firm representing domestic producers in a trade remedy case may have a Rule 1.7 conflict with importers of the same product. The weekly habit behind this is in business development for lawyers.
An introduction beats any note. The company's customs broker, freight forwarder, accountant or banker may know the owner well. Ask for an introduction, not a pitch: do not script what an introducer says to the company about its specific matter, and let the owner decide whether to talk. Rule 7.2(b) bars giving anything of value for a recommendation outside a few narrow exceptions, so keep any thanks to an introducer to a nominal gift.
Clean finds companies at moments that create legal work. For a trade and customs practice, the moments are a company that starts importing under its own name and one that opens a new trade lane. For each company, Clean gives the reason, the practice area it touches and the person who hires outside counsel, usually the general counsel, the CEO or the owner. It also shows who in your team's network can introduce you, which is what warm introductions means at Clean.
Open any company in Clean to see the practice areas it touches, who can introduce you, and every record behind it, each with a note on the legal work it creates. Anything Clean cannot confirm stays marked unknown. You set who to look for by industry, company size, region and the kind of matter you want, and leave out current clients. The same approach serves a government contracts practice.
Clean does not use intent data and is not a contact database. It works from real-world records of what companies actually do, and your firm decides whether and how to reach out. Book a demo to see companies in your market with a moment that creates work in your trade practice, and who to reach.
The importer of record must use reasonable care to make entry and declare the value, classification and rate of duty of its goods (19 U.S.C. 1484). It also takes on country of origin marking, a bond requirement, keeping the records behind each entry, and the ban on goods made with forced labor. A customs broker can prepare entries, but the statute puts the reasonable-care duty on the importer of record.
At companies with in-house lawyers, the general counsel or chief legal officer usually hires outside counsel, often after a supply chain, logistics or trade compliance leader raises the issue. At smaller companies, the owner or CEO decides, commonly with the CFO, because duties change landed cost. Write the first touch for both the person who feels the problem and the person who signs the engagement letter.
A truthful written note is the safer default. ABA Model Rule 7.3(b) bars live solicitation when a significant motive is pecuniary gain, with exceptions that include people who routinely use that type of legal service for business purposes. A first-year importer's owner may never have hired trade counsel, California has no business-purposes exception, and Florida treats cold calls as prohibited solicitation. Check your own state's rules and ethics counsel.
Often, yes. A new source country raises origin and marking questions, can bring a product inside an antidumping or countervailing duty order, can change which trade agreement preferences apply, and calls for forced labor tracing on new suppliers. The importer's broker and procedures were built for the old lane, so each of those questions needs a fresh answer, and supplier contracts may need new terms.
Clean finds companies at moments that create trade work, such as a company that starts importing under its own name or opens a new trade lane. For each one it shows the reason, the practice area it touches, the person who hires outside counsel, and who in your team's network can introduce you. Your firm decides whether and how to reach out, and Clean does not send messages for you.
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