Torres Trade Advisory, a business and trade consulting firm, hired former export enforcement agent Donald Pearce as a senior adviser for its global risk, monitorship and investigations practice, the firm announced Jan. 20. Pearce previously served as a special agent with the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Export Enforcement, where he helped in the prosecutions of “precedent-setting” export control cases and wrote the 2016 amendments to the Wassenaar Arrangement's Best Practices for Export Control Enforcement.

Rufus Yerxa, previously president of the National Foreign Trade Council, is now senior adviser at McLarty Associates, the consulting company said Jan. 31.

The National Foreign Trade Council named Tiffany Smith vice president for global trade policy. Most recently, she was a senior policy adviser in Mayer Brown's international trade and government relations practice. Before joining the law firm, she worked for 16 years in the federal government, including as a Senate staffer, and at the Commerce Department and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

CBP released the names of those serving on the next Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee.

Erik Autor, former president of the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones, has joined customs and trade law firm Barlow & Co. as of counsel, he announced on LinkedIn. Autor's background includes a clerkship at the Court of International Trade and working at Skadden Arps as a lawyer in its international trade practice group. He will assist companies with their customs and trade matters, the firm said.

Iris Bennett, former cross-border investigations and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act attorney at boutique firm Smith Pachter, has joined Steptoe & Johnson as a partner in its Investigations and White Collar Defense Group, the firm announced. Based in Washington D.C., Bennett will tap her experience carrying out internal investigations over potential violations of the FCPA, the False Claims Act and the Anti-Kickback Act, the firm said.

Angela Hofmann, former leader of the Eurasia Group's industrial and consumer corporate practice, joined Sandler Travis as vice president of the international trade and supply chain resiliency wing, the firm announced in an email. Hofmann's corporate executive experience also includes working as Walmart's vice president for international corporate affairs.

Akin Gump broadened its international trade practice with the addition of two former U.S. government officials and sanctions and export controls lawyers, the firm announced. Elyse Martin, former official at the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, and George Pence, former assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California, have joined the firm as senior counsel. While at OFAC, Martin served as the assistant director for Regulatory Affairs for two years and for over a year as chief of sanctions program implementation in the Sanctions Compliance and Evaluation Division, the firm said. As assistant U.S. attorney, Pence worked on investigations and prosecutions pertaining to export crimes, terrorism and other national security matters, it said.

With the exit of Rep. Devin Nunes of California to a new social media company, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee shuffled subcommittee leadership positions. Rep. Adrian Smith of Nebraska will be the new ranking member for the Trade Subcommittee, Ways and Means ranking member Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said.

Agustin Orozco, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California for the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, has rejoined Crowell & Moring, the firm announced. Orozco will work as a partner in the Los Angeles office's White Collar & Regulatory Enforcement and Government Contracts groups. He will focus on white collar criminal defense and corporate investigations, and advise individuals and companies on matters relating to the "Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), False Claims Act (FCA), Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), and alleged violations of Title 18 of the United States Code," the firm said.