The Honorable Nicole Y. Lamb-Hale is a Managing Director at Kroll, a global leader in risk mitigation, compliance, security, and incident response solutions. Based in Washington, DC, Ms. Lamb-Hale has more than 25 years of executive level experience and a unique viewpoint on global commercial and compliance matters from her extensive service in both the public and private sectors.
Ms. Lamb-Hale’s areas of focus at Kroll include investigative due diligence in M&A transactions, regulatory compliance matters, and market entry support. Representative matters include, global due diligence on potential joint venture partners, channel partners and supply chain partners; analysis of the competitive, regulatory and macro-economic environments in global markets in support of new market entry; and regulatory due diligence and consulting in the context of national security (i.e. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), export controls and sanctions), anti-bribery/anti-corruption and anti-money laundering regulatory regimes.
Prior to joining Kroll, Ms. Lamb-Hale was a Senior Vice President of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategic advisory and commercial diplomacy firm, where she provided strategic advice to companies in the development and implementation of their global business objectives, including the expansion of their exports to, and presence in, international markets. Examples of her work include advising a U.S. based oil and gas company on resolving operational challenges resulting from a territorial dispute between two Middle East sovereigns; advising a major U.S. retailer on strategies to mitigate and manage the aftermath of the collapse of a clothing factory in South Asia; and advising an Asian export credit agency on challenges and opportunities in five regional markets.
A passionate advocate for business, Ms. Lamb-Hale was nominated by the President and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Manufacturing and Services in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration (ITA). In this role, she was the Chief Executive Officer of the industry-facing unit of ITA, serving as the liaison between U.S. industry and the federal government with respect to access to international markets and U.S. policies impacting the competitiveness of U.S. exports. In this role, Ms. LambHale also served as the Department’s lead on CFIUS where she represented the interests of business in some of the most significant cases before CFIUS in recent history. In addition, she regularly led business delegations on international trade and trade policy missions during which she negotiated with senior foreign government officials on the elimination of regulatory and legal impediments to trade to create policy environments conducive to free trade and to mitigate market access barriers to U.S. exports.
Prior to serving as Assistant Secretary, Ms. Lamb-Hale served by presidential appointment as the Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Department of Commerce. In that role, she was the Chief Operating Officer of the Office of General Counsel, where she managed a $50 million operating budget and 300 attorneys, and assisted the General Counsel as the legal advisor to the Secretary of Commerce.
A native of Detroit, Michigan, Ms. Lamb-Hale practiced law in two major law firms in which she specialized in business restructuring and public finance. After practicing as an equity partner with the Michigan based law firm of Dykema Gossett PLLC, where she served as the chair of the bankruptcy practice and as hiring partner, Ms. Lamb-Hale joined the law firm of Foley & Lardner LLP as an equity partner where she continued her counseling of corporate clients in significant business transactions, including out of court restructuring and bankruptcy. In addition to her client work, Ms. Lamb-Hale served as the managing partner of Foley & Lardner’s Detroit office where she was responsible for managing operations, new business development and the implementation of the firm’s business strategies and objectives in the Michigan market. She was recognized as one of Michigan’s Super Lawyers for three consecutive years and was AV Peer Review Rated by Martindale Hubbell. She is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Ms. Lamb-Hale has been active in civic and community affairs throughout her career for which she has received recognition over the years. She is currently the Chair of the National Alliance for Jobs and Innovation working to combat IP theft threatening the global competitiveness of U.S. manufacturers. She also serves on the board of trustees of The Holton-Arms School in Bethesda, Maryland where she chairs the audit committee and serves on the trustee (nominating) and executive committee. She is also a life member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., a member of The Links Incorporated and a member of Jack and Jill of America, Inc.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Ms. Lamb-Hale attended the University of Michigan where she studied in the Honors College and earned her A.B. with high honors in Political Science. She earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Ms. Lamb-Hale is married to John H. Hale, III and is the proud mother of John H. Hale, IV and Ashleigh N. Hale.
