You are the chief legal officer of a U.S. company. Your CEO walks into your office and announces that your company is about to conclude its first international sale. In addition, the company has just appointed distributors in Hong Kong and Dubai and expects to begin selling products throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East over the coming year. He asks you to determine the U.S. legal requirements that will apply to this business. “Also,” he adds, “I’ve heard there are civil and criminal penalties for violations of the export laws, including for our employees, officers and directors, so it is important that we get this right.”

You have heard that there are a number of U.S. laws that could apply, but you are not sure if you can come up to speed as quickly as required. What to do?