Freshfields Expands National Security Capabilities with Addition of Intelligence Official Colin Costello to CFIUS Team in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Costello joins from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP (“Freshfields”) today expanded its national security capabilities with the addition of Colin Costello as CFIUS client advisor. Based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, Mr. Costello joins from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where he served as the Acting Director of the National Intelligence Council’s Investment Security Group. In this role, Mr. Costello was the Intelligence Community’s primary representative to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and managed critical intelligence input into every CFIUS review since March 2013.

At Freshfields, Mr. Costello joins partner Aimen Mir and special counsel Christine Laciak to strengthen a team unmatched in its ability to advise clients on global foreign investment reviews and regulations of international business transactions, particularly those involving US national security reviews conducted by CFIUS. Mr. Mir joined Freshfields in 2019 after serving for nearly a decade in leadership roles with CFIUS and the US Department of the Treasury, where he managed CFIUS review and resolution of over 1,000 transactions and was the principal US liaison with partner governments on foreign investment review issues.

“Colin is a stellar addition to our national security team, having played a highly consequential role in the CFIUS process for the better part of a decade,” said Mr. Mir. “At a time when government scrutiny of investment flows is at a historical high, our clients will benefit tremendously from the real-world, direct insight that Colin brings from having shaped the outcome of hundreds of CFIUS cases.”

While at ODNI, Mr. Costello developed the threat analysis methodology used by the Intelligence Community (IC) to analyze CFIUS transactions and other foreign investment-related regulatory filings and coordinated the analysis of over a dozen IC agencies to develop the threat assessment that forms the core of every CFIUS review. He also played an active role in informing deliberations over, and implementation of, the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA) and corresponding regulations.

Prior to joining ODNI, Mr. Costello worked as a senior associate for PwC, collaborating closely with CFIUS and Intelligence Community agencies. He earned his Master of Business Administration in Finance from Johns Hopkins University; his Master of Arts in Security Studies from Georgetown University; and his Bachelor of Arts, Summa Cum Laude, in International Security and Political Science from San Diego State University. He is currently a candidate for Juris Doctor at Georgetown University Law Center.

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