Organization

FIRS is led by an SES-level Chief, assisted by a Principal Deputy Chief. FIRS consists of attorneys, subject-matter experts, research specialists, and other professional staff across seven units, as shown in the organizational outline below.

Four units are each supervised by a Deputy Chief and staffed primarily by attorneys, who are dual-hatted to perform all legal and policy work:

• The Foreign Investment Unit primarily represents the Department on CFIUS and contributes to interagency development of the outbound-investment program.
• The Telecom & Supply Chain Unit primarily manages the Attorney General’s responsibilities as Chair of Team Telecom and works closely with interagency partners in the exercise of various technology supply-chain authorities.
• The Data Security Unit administers the Data Security Program under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and 28 C.F.R. Part 202.
• The Compliance & Enforcement Unit helps design measures to mitigate risk, works with companies to ensure compliance with those measures, and takes action to enforce compliance when appropriate.

Three additional non-attorney units provide critical support and expertise:

• The Risk Advisory Unit, led by the Principal Scientific Officer, supports and improves NSD’s approach to risk assessment and management through expert-driven research, analysis, and advice, with a particular focus on communications networks, information and cyber security, data science, and business governance and operations.
• The Data & Knowledge Management Unit, led by a Senior Manager provides data analytics and business intelligence, and manages systems to track and analyze matters and information.
• The Operations Unit, led by a Senior Manager provides all operational, paralegal, and administrative support.

FIRS personnel come from a diverse range of professional backgrounds, including civil and criminal litigation, transactional, and regulatory practices at law firms, cybersecurity consulting firms, telecommunications and software companies, other parts of the Department of Justice (including the Civil Division, Criminal Division, Office of Legal Counsel, and NSD’s Office of the Assistant Attorney General, Counterintelligence and Export Controls Section, Counterterrorism Section, and Office of Intelligence), the Intelligence Community (including the FBI and National Security Agency), and other government agencies (including the Department of Commerce, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Federal Communications Commission, and the White House).