Sterling Darling

Sterling is a Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations Counsel in the Washington D.C. office.  He has extensive experience representing clients involved in government investigations by U.S. authorities, including the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and international authorities, including the Securities & Futures Commission of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and in complex commercial litigation.  

Sterling’s practice also focuses on advising international financial institutions and global banks, multinational corporations, state-owned entities, telecommunications companies, and energy exploration, production and pipeline companies located throughout the world on complex U.S. risk issues, including economic sanctions and export controls, bribery and corruption, securities regulation, financial regulation, and anti-money laundering.  He works closely with the firm’s Banking, Corporate and M&A, Derivatives & Structured Products, and Energy & Infrastructure groups to support transactions and address critical U.S. legal issues.  

He often draws on his experience in the firm’s New York office (2007-2014) as a commercial litigator handling high-profile cases stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis to advise on litigation and risk issues relating to complex financial structures and products.  While in New York Sterling was seconded to the firm’s London office twice, and to the New York office of a multinational universal bank. After New York, Sterling was based in the firm’s Hong Kong office (2015-2018). Since leaving Hong Kong, he continues to advise private and state-owned entities located or with dealings in Asia on their compliance with U.S. laws and regulations, and the assessment of risk in connection with contemplated acquisitions and investments.

Sterling has more than a decade of experience advising U.S. and international clients on complex economic sanctions and export control issues, in connection with enterprise-wide compliance, specific transactions, and potential breaches.  He regularly advises clients regarding voluntary self-disclosures, investigations by OFAC, and requests for interpretive guidance, in addition to the analysis of complex sanctions issues that arise in the course of capital markets offerings and M&A transactions.  Since 2014, he has been deeply involved in clients’ management of Russia sanctions risk, and has supported leading U.S. financial institutions in addressing issues raised across their business lines, as well as non-U.S. lenders to sanctions-restricted borrowers.  Sterling also advises clients in connection with the evolving U.S. restrictions relating to China, Iran-related sanctions, and Venezuela-related sanctions, in addition to providing general sanction advice relating to the other programs administered by OFAC.

Prior to joining Linklaters Sterling was a law clerk to the Honorable Myron H. Bright of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (2006-2007), and a law clerk to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2004-2006).

Work highlights

Sterling has advised:

• A global financial services company: in a long-running U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation.
• An employee group: in investigations by financial authorities relating to the use of personal devices for communications.
• A U.S. multinational investment bank and financial services company: on wide-ranging sanctions issues across multiple business lines.
• A non-U.S. lender group: on sanctions issues in relation to a long-running project financing targeted by Russia-related debt restrictions and subsequently full blocking sanctions, including dealings with OFAC and the Department of State.
• A U.S. multinational financial institution: on U.S. sanctions issues in connection with proceedings commenced against the financial institution in Russia.
• A multinational technology company: in the resolution of voluntary self-disclosures and subsequent investigations by OFAC, and follow-up enhancements and remedial measures.
• A multinational investment bank and financial services company: on regulatory investigations concerning its wealth management division resulting in a record-equalling resolution, and separately concerning its anti-money laundering compliance framework.
• A multinational universal bank: in regulatory investigations in Hong Kong and Singapore concerning the foreign exchange markets.
• Telecommunications and technology companies: on emerging export control and sanctions issues, including in connection with the license requirements on the Chinese multinational technology corporation Huawei.
• Energy companies and financing parties: on U.S. sanctions issues, in particular under the Russia and Venezuela sanctions programs.
• State owned entities: on risk arising under U.S. primary and secondary sanctions in connection with their lending activities.
• A multinational extractives company: on bribery and corruption risk in relation to its higher risk jurisdiction dealings.
• A U.S. multinational financial services company: on its dealings in Venezuela following the imposition of sanctions.
• An international organization: in obtaining Iran-related guidance from OFAC concerning significant financial transactions.

Sterling has a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Harvard College, where he was awarded the Newbold Rhinelander Landon Memorial Scholarship Prize.  He has a Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, from Georgetown University Law School, where he was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics, a member of the Moot Court Team, and the editor-in-chief of the American Criminal Law Review’s Annual Survey of White Collar Crime.