Benjamin H. Shanbaum concentrates his practice in customs and international trade matters. He has a wide range of experience in counseling importers on their responsibilities to US Customs and Border Protection, including tariff classification and valuation of merchandise, country of origin marking and rules of origin, recordkeeping obligations and obtaining preferential duty treatment under trade agreements and other special programs. He has assisted in conducting internal importer audits and reviews and regularly speaks at client-based and other import compliance training seminars.

Benjamin has also advised clients on a variety of trade issues administered by different federal agencies. He has navigated domestic industry and respondent companies through antidumping and countervailing duty investigations on merchandise imported from abroad, while counseling other clients on the effect of trade remedy orders on their businesses. He has worked on section 337 investigations on the protection of intellectual property before the International Trade Commission, handled numerous inquiries before the US Department of Commerce and advised clients on compliance with Buy American rules accompanying government or other public procurement contracts.  

Benjamin has also advised importers on their efforts at complying with more aggressive consumer product safety laws. He has spoken at seminars on topics relating to the implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act and on the Consumer Product Safety Commission's more authoritative role in enforcing this and other product safety laws.  Benjamin's experience also includes counseling clients on trade restrictions associated with the Lacey Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

While attending law school, Benjamin was an executive articles editor for the Chicago-Kent Law Review. He is a former chair of the Chicago Bar Association’s Customs & US International Trade Law Committee. Benjamin is also an active member of the Chicago Bar Association’s Barristers Big Band and performs regularly at legal and other events throughout Chicago.

Education

• JD, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, high honors, Order of the Coif

• BME, University of Illinois

Admissions

• Illinois

Court Admissions

• U.S. Court of International Trade

• U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit