Olga Torres is the Founder and Managing Member of Torres Trade Law and its affiliate advisory firm Torres Trade Advisory, LLC. A dynamic and experienced attorney, she regularly guides clients – businesses in the hi-tech, defense contracting, telecommunications, aerospace, semiconductor, and satellite industries as well as highly regulated technology start-ups, blue-chip investment funds, and private equity groups – through a broad range of complex strategic and regulatory trade controls and national security matters, including developing effective strategies and conducting negotiations with U.S. regulatory agencies and, when needed, other regulators around the world.
Ms. Torres works with clients to identify and respond to a variety of supply-chain risks and issues related to due diligence, foreign investment, sustainability and ESG, export control, and national security. She has particular strengths helping them create operational efficiencies, develop strategy, and keep their companies compliant and prosperous.
Clients with operations around the globe turn to Ms. Torres for assistance in ascertaining legal risks and improving legal compliance, and to manage complex investigative and administrative enforcement cases involving U.S. federal agencies. They also seek out her experience and guidance to obtain clearance of transactions that are subject to review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and to identify and negotiate measures to mitigate Foreign Ownership, Control, or Influence (FOCI).
In addition to her representation of private and public companies based throughout the world, Ms. Torres also advises the U.S. Department of State on defense trade matters as part of her appointment, by the Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, to the Defense Trade Advisory Group (DTAG).
Ms. Torres regularly counsels clients on compliance with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and other anti-bribery laws, and has broad experience developing compliance programs, providing training, and conducting sensitive internal FCPA compliance investigations in English and Spanish for companies large and small.
Ms. Torres is a widely recognized attorney, public speaker, writer, and subject-matter expert on strategic trade risks. She brings a diverse perspective to both domestic and international companies in sensitive and hi-tech industries on highly regulated, technical, and complex areas of the law.
She regularly represents companies before, and coordinates on behalf of her clients with, multiple federal agencies, including U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Treasury, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of Energy, and the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, to name a few.
Ms. Torres frequently lectures on export controls and international trade for organizations, universities, and government agencies in different countries, including in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Mexico, Thailand, France, Canada, and the United States. She is the author of several chapters on international trade in the WorldECR's Export Compliance Manager's Handbook, the Society of International Affairs Export Voluntary Disclosure Handbook, and other global publications.
Throughout her career, Ms. Torres has been selected for recognition in multiple attorney ranking guides and publications including in Chambers and Partners USA (2018, 2019, and 2021), Who’s Who Legal (2017-2021), and SuperLawyers Rising Stars (2015-2018). Prior to founding Torres Trade Law, she was an attorney in the International & Cross Border Transactions group at an Am 100 Law Firm in Washington, D.C.
In her spare time, Ms. Torres likes to travel, work out, attend the opera, eat spicy Indian, Thai, and Mexican food, and spend quality time with her family and sons.
