Customs Basics for Business Lawyers Representing Importers: When Duties Become Final and Where to Sue

John M. Peterson, Partner | Neville Peterson LLP

John M. Peterson is a partner in the New York office of Neville Peterson LLP and has practiced international trade and customs law since 1977. His work runs from import planning and advice to representing clients before U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other federal trade agencies, and to litigation in United States and foreign courts.

• Education & Credentials

John earned his J.D. from Fordham University in 1977 and his B.S. from Fordham University in 1974. He was admitted to the New York bar and the U.S. Court of International Trade in 1978 and to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1982. He is also admitted before the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York (1979) and the Northern and Western Districts of New York (1980), and before the U.S. Supreme Court (1991).

• Recognition & Leadership

John has served as a United States Panelist in several binational dispute resolution proceedings under Chapter 19 of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and as a panelist on the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement Dispute Resolution Panel. He has also served as Articles Editor of the Fordham Urban Law Journal and as a sponsor of the Fordham International Law Journal.

• Professional Involvement

John is a member of the Customs and International Trade Bar Association, sitting on its Trial and Appellate Practice Committee and its Committee on Continuing Legal Education and Professional Responsibility. He is also a member of the Federal Circuit Bar Association, where he serves on the Committee on International Trade Appeals and the Committee on Pro Se and Pro Bono Appeals. He speaks often on customs and trade topics, and his published work includes “Civil Customs Penalties under Section 592 of the Tariff Act: Current Practice & the Need for Further Reform” in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.

• Experience

John has litigated hundreds of cases in United States courts, most often in the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and has argued cases in the courts of several foreign countries. He represents foreign and domestic clients before CBP, the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce, the Foreign Trade Zones Board, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Bureau of Industry and Security, and the Departments of State and Treasury. His practice also covers antidumping and countervailing duty matters, export controls, protection of intellectual property rights in international trade, and matters before foreign customs authorities, the World Trade Organization, and the World Customs Organization.

Randy Rucker, Partner | Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP

Randy Rucker is a partner in the Chicago office of Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, where he advises global and multinational clients on every aspect of U.S. customs law. He regularly represents importers before U.S. Customs and Border Protection, protesting administrative decisions and preparing submissions, ruling requests, and prior disclosures, and he litigates before the Court of International Trade.

• Education & Credentials

Randy received his J.D. with honors from The John Marshall Law School in 2000, where he was on the John Marshall Law Review, and holds a B.S. from the University of Alabama. He is admitted to practice in Florida and Illinois and before the U.S. Court of International Trade, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

• Recognition & Leadership

Chambers USA has ranked Randy nationwide in International Trade: Customs for 2023 through 2026, and Chambers Global recognizes him for 2025-26. He was named an Illinois Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2010.

• Professional Involvement

Randy writes frequently on trade policy, tariffs, and regulatory change, and his recent writing includes 2026 guidance on IEEPA refund claims for importers, suppliers, distributors, and retailers. His firm’s CLE webinar programming connected to him includes sessions on the IEEPA class action and business-to-business claims landscape (June 2026), False Claims Act investigations of tariff enforcement (November 2025), and the Section 301 tariff litigation (October 2020).

• Experience

Randy’s trade litigation work includes protesting CBP decisions and representing clients before the Court of International Trade, with matters including a favorable court decision for Home Depot in doorknobs litigation and the defense of Newtrend USA against transshipment allegations. He advises on classification and valuation, country of origin and marking, quantitative import restraints, duty-preference and savings programs, and free trade agreement benefits, and he reviews company operations to meet reasonable care requirements. He also handles trade matters before the Department of Commerce, the Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including scope ruling requests and changed circumstances reviews under antidumping orders.

Christopher J. Duncan, Tariff and Customs Of Counsel | Squire Patton Boggs

Christopher J. Duncan is a tariff and customs attorney in the Los Angeles office of Squire Patton Boggs, representing importers, exporters, manufacturers, warehouses, customs brokers, and freight forwarders before U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security. He routinely files protests, petitions, and offers in compromise seeking administrative relief, works to mitigate IEEPA, Section 301, and steel, aluminum, and copper tariffs, and litigates in the U.S. Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

• Education & Credentials

Chris earned an LL.M. with honors distinction from Georgetown University in 2002, a J.D. from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2000, and a B.A. magna cum laude from Boston College in 1997. He is admitted in California (2000) and the District of Columbia (2002), and before the U.S. Court of International Trade, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the Central and Northern Districts of California.

• Recognition & Leadership

Before joining the firm, Chris spent 16 years as a supervisory and senior attorney with CBP, finishing as the agency’s top attorney for the Northern California, Hawaii, and Pacific Islands regions, based in San Francisco. He also served on detail to the Department of Justice as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of California.

• Professional Involvement

Chris is a member of the Los Angeles Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association, the San Diego Customs Brokers Association, and the Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of Northern California. He also belongs to the American Bar Association, the California and District of Columbia bar associations, and the Los Angeles County Bar Association. His published work includes articles on China’s capacity to implement WTO Dispute Settlement Body decisions and on reconciling U.S. regulatory procedure with the WTO Reformulated Gasoline decision.

• Experience

Chris’s CBP career included senior legal posts at the ports of entry in San Diego, Los Angeles, and El Paso. In private practice his work covers tariff mitigation, customs classification and tariff engineering, valuation, country of origin and marking, antidumping and countervailing duties, trade compliance, property seizure and forfeiture, border enforcement of intellectual property rights, and import requirements administered by CBP alongside agencies such as the FDA and DEA.

Brandon A. Kennedy, Counsel | Grant, Herrmann, Schwartz & Klinger LLP

Brandon A. Kennedy practices in the International Trade & Customs Law and Litigation & Dispute Resolution groups of Grant, Herrmann, Schwartz & Klinger LLP. He previously served as a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, International Trade Field Office, representing the United States, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, at the U.S. Court of International Trade and on appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

• Education & Credentials

Brandon holds a J.D. from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, an M.B.A. from the Quantic School of Business and Technology, and an M.A. and B.A. from Harvard University. He is admitted in New York, New Jersey, California, and the District of Columbia, and before the U.S. Court of International Trade, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, and the U.S. District Court of New Jersey.

• Recognition & Leadership

Brandon’s path through civil litigation includes judicial clerkships, litigating for the government, and representing private parties. He is a native Spanish speaker with dual U.S. and Mexico citizenship, is fluent in French, and converses in Portuguese, Italian, and Arabic.

• Professional Involvement

Brandon draws on his background in international politics and business, and on years living abroad in Mexico, Brazil, Lebanon, South Africa, New Zealand, and Thailand, in serving a diverse client base.

• Experience

At the Department of Justice, Brandon’s cases involved the classification and valuation of imports, presidential proclamations, tariffs and exclusions, international treaties and trade agreements, and investigations of transshipment, customs evasion, and duty collection actions. His commercial litigation experience spans pleadings, motions, discovery, depositions of fact and expert witnesses, oral argument, settlement, trial, and appeal, in industries such as automotive, electronics, food, retail, technology, and textiles. He also has experience in arbitration, contracts, torts, immigration, and international law.

SESSION 1 – Liquidation and Protest: The Points Where Importers Lose Customs Refund Rights | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This hour follows one import entry through each point where an importer’s refund right can be lost. It covers refund ownership, liquidation finality, matching correction tools, protest requirements, and the ACH enrollment needed to collect.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Filing an Importer’s Claim in the Court of International Trade Without Dismissal | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This hour covers getting an importer’s claim into the Court of International Trade on the right jurisdictional basis. It walks through four mistakes that end cases and closes with a 1581(a) versus-1581(i) decision tree and pre-filing checklist.