This morning, we caught up with Akin Gump's new Cuba expert, Anya Landau French, one day after the firm launched its new cross-practice Cuba initiative. Anya has visited the country more than two dozen times since 2000.
Anya says that Cuba has seen fundamental changes, particularly since Raul Castro took over and stated that the economy wasn't sustainable. There's been a "real psychological shift" from people being discouraged from running a business to plans for about a quarter of the Cuban labor force to be in the "non-state" sector. Cuban people need, like we do, well-paying jobs, says Anya; that's where the US can help. Anya joins Akin Gump next week, following her time as an aide to Sen. Max Baucus, international trade adviser to the Senate Finance Committee, and senior fellow at the Center for Democracy in the Americas. The firm has already been advising clients on US-Cuba relations for nearly 15 years.
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There's now a lot of interest in Cuba in the telecom, healthcare, biotech and travel industries. There are still trade sanctions that need to be lifted by Congress, but the rumor is that the Administration may open up opportunities to do business in the coming months, particularly in travel. Anya is not lobbying the government for now but says she's looking forward to visiting Cuba again and taking clients with her.
She became interested in Cuba after attending several educational exchanges in the country. Meeting Cuban individuals face-to-face, she observed they were very well-educated, opinionated and friendly, and it was startling that the two countries were "so near and so far." She started working on bringing our two sides together. Joining Akin Gump is "an extension of the work I've been doing to bring Cubans and American together. Now it's not just how do we understand each other, but what we can do together."
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