Q&A With Hogan Lovells' Mayur Patel

The Export Practitioner grabbed Mayur Patel for a quick call on his first day in the office as a partner in Hogan Lovells' International Trade and Investment practice. 

Patel also spent seven years in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative between the Obama and first Trump administrations, where he worked on policy initiatives including the the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the renegotiation of NAFTA that ultimately led to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

He spoke to The Export Practitioner between onboarding sessions, client calls and fresh cups of coffee.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Export Practitioner: Since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is top of mind, what’s one aspect of the legislation that you think deserves more attention?

Mayur Patel: We'll have to see how the energy credits shake out between the House and the Senate. I think the Foreign Entity of Concern Rule is going to be one of the things that we're going to have some debate about. I can't comment too much on that, but I would certainly encourage people to take a look at a lot of the distinctions being made between the House and the Senate on how we're doing energy credits. Sometimes the devil is really in the details about how we decide that, and there are a lot of amendments going to be offered through vote-arama on this issue.

EP: Any other legislation you’d like to highlight that may be getting overshadowed by the budget bill?

Patel: I would encourage stakeholders to take a look at the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025. Having worked on suspending Russia’s Most Favored Nation status, this is a bill that does have a lot of member interest. I wouldn't be surprised if it picks up some momentum and I think there is a deep desire to work on trying to address Russia. Also, the tools in it are things that I think could benefit from having broader discussion, so we can get real stakeholder support behind trying to figure out how to counter some of Russia's activities, but also make sure we avoid unintended consequences.

EP: You are going to be working on and through some other tools that you were quite important in crafting. I'm thinking of USMCA, where Hogan Lovells is very active in USMCA disputes. How are you feeling about putting these things into practice? 

Patel: I'm excited. One of the things I'm excited about is: We are doing a lot of trade policy right now, and this presents a lot of opportunities to improve opportunity for American businesses.

I viewed USMCA in many ways as a major win, both from the USTR side and the congressional side. Implementation has been challenging, but I really do think that there's an opportunity to get a lot of things right. Today Canada dropping the digital services tax was a really good sign showing that this administration really wants to engage on a lot of issues that a lot of people thought were difficult. I think it shows that we really are going to have some serious negotiations over the next year or so. 

EP: You were previously involved in talks trying to get Canada to back down from that. 

Patel: I would say it was a bipartisan effort between Sen. Crapo and Sen. Wyden to encourage Canada to drop the DST, and for the Biden administration, we were strongly encouraging them to do more of an aggressive enforcement action on that. So they launched the USMCA case. We felt some aspects certainly may have fallen within the scope of USMCA; for some we thought there may have been other tools we could have looked at to encourage Canada to cooperate a little bit more constructively on that issue.

EP: What's the best part of rejoining the private sector? 

Patel: We do have better coffee out here. I hate to say it. My poor Keurig may take some disappointment in the trade suite. 

But honestly, the best thing about it is I've been dealing with Hogan Lovells attorneys for years now, whether at USTR or on The Hill, and this is a great team. People like Warren Maruyama, former USTR General Counsel; Jared Wessel, great trade remedies lawyer; Jonathan Stoel, great litigator. It is a great time to be here, and I'm really excited about that.

I'm going to miss my Hill colleagues. I know that gets a lot of platitudes, but it's true. But I really think that we can do some really great things for people here. 

EP: And besides your colleagues, what will you miss about the Hill?

Patel: I know people will say it's trite, but my colleagues helped set me up with my wife, so I have to give them a lot of credit! 

One thing I will miss are [compromises] that people never really see on the Hill that take place, like in the cloakroom of the Senate. Those stories kind of vanish, but there is a lot to be optimistic about. 

One memory that sticks out to me was when I felt we'd gotten robbed of something. I was negotiating pretty hard, and I was like, “Boss, I've gotten you 90% of what you want. I'm going to go in for the last 5%, then maybe we call it a day.” 

He stopped me and he said, “Actually, Mayur, I'd like you to give this, this and this back. Let them have 75 to 80%.” 

When I asked why, he said, “Because we're going to be doing business with these people for years to come. Elections come and go. Some days you'll be the minority, some days you'll be the majority.” 

I don't think people always appreciate that that happens. People only see the C-SPAN arguments. They miss the five minutes before where they shake hands and say, “I know you’ve got to block this motion, but we're going to work together on something else.” And they do.