ATF Compliance and Enforcement

Williams Mullen provides high-level ATF regulatory counsel, advising clients on how to avoid problems and representing clients when problems arise.  When representing clients, we have clear, simple goals in mind: help clients navigate the regulatory environment, reduce and eliminate legal risk, and keep our clients focused on their businesses.

Our assistance to clients includes the following:

• Support of clients’ sales and marketing strategies by ensuring that sales efforts are conducted in a legally-compliant manner.  For example, our experienced team of business and regulatory attorneys has developed standard terms and conditions for online sales, and we tailor these to our clients’ sales and marketing needs.
   
• Advising on corporate structuring, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate financing, taking into account the strictures of ATF regulations.  Our business lawyers work with our regulatory lawyers to shape corporate transactions so that regulatory issues are anticipated and ATF regulatory problems are avoided.
   
• Drafting and negotiating contracts that take into account the special requirements for members of this industry.  Some examples of our wide-ranging services in this area include employment contracts that address responsible person issues, lease agreements that cover ATF licensing issues, and sales contracts that fully anticipate concerns raised by the transfer of regulated items.
   
• Advising on basic ATF regulatory requirements, including licensing and inspections.
   
• Representing FFLs when ATF takes adverse action, including advising during inspections and warning letter conferences and representing FFLs when ATF is considering license revocation.  Our team helps clients manage the ATF inspection process, assists clients with corrective action, and reduces our clients’ potential regulatory exposure.
   
• Conducting internal investigations when potential regulatory violations raise concerns about potential criminal liability.  Williams Mullen’s deep bench of former federal prosecutors applies its high-level expertise to assist our clients in investigating the facts, understanding potential legal exposure, and mitigating any potential harm to our clients.
   
• Staying ahead of the game by closely monitoring ATF regulatory trends and anticipating potential issues for our clients.  The ATF regulatory environment is changing and our team of industry experts stays on top of these political and regulatory changes and helps our clients navigate this difficult regulatory environment.