GILBERT LEE SANDLER is Founder and Counsel to Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A., resident in the Miami office. Mr. Sandler has extensive experience in handling complex international trade, intellectual property and litigation projects for a wide range of clients including importers, exporters, manufacturers, bonded warehousemen, foreign-trade zones, customs brokers, freight forwarders, carriers, financial institutions and surety companies. After serving six years as a senior trial attorney in the Department of Justice (Customs Section), he began a 38-year career in private practice emphasizing international trade, including the technical areas of tariff classification, valuation and preference; quota qualification; product marking and labeling laws; copyright and trademark protection; security measures; trade compliance and audit programs; penalty avoidance and defense; and multiple other import requirements administered by federal and state agencies (e.g., FDA, EPA, USDA) involving issues such as health, safety, the environment and ethical sourcing.
Mr. Sandler has been appointed by five administrations to advise the United States government on international trade negotiations, including the Uruguay and Doha rounds, free trade agreement negotiations, the Customs Valuation Agreement, the Harmonized Tariff Classification Agreement and the Kyoto Convention. He has served on the Advisory Committee on Customs Commercial Operations, where he played a leading role in the committee’s work on the development of the Department of Homeland Security and on security programs such as the Container Security Initiative and the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism.
Mr. Sandler holds a J.D. from the New York University School of Law and an A.B. (with honors) from Dartmouth College. He is a member of the bars in New York and Florida and has chaired the Florida bar’s International Law Section. He serves on the board of the American Association of Exporters and Importers and chaired its Regulated Industries Committee. He has chaired the Florida International Trade and Investment Council, the World Trade Center Miami and is a member of the International Business Committee to the Florida Chamber of Commerce. As a member of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, he has served as vice chairman for International Business and Immigration. He co-chaired all nine annual Customs/Trade/Finance Symposiums of the Americas and was appointed by President Clinton to the Host Committee for the Summit of the Americas held in December 1994. He currently serves as general counsel to the Florida Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Association, the American Surety Association and the American Free Trade Association.