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Leading global law firm Baker McKenzie announced today that former US Department of Justice official Sumon Dantiki has joined the Firm’s Washington, DC office as a partner in its Litigation and Government Enforcement Practice and co-chair of the National Security Practice. Sumon is a distinguished cyber, national security, and investigations lawyer with deep experience with matters at the intersection of technology, security and legal risk. 

A leading global cybersecurity practitioner, Sumon’s practice focuses on sensitive, multi-dimensional investigations, disputes and counseling, especially ones with cybersecurity, national security, and cross-border aspects. Sumon helps multinational clients prevent and address critical risks to their business interests, including data breaches, insider threats, transactional and compliance risks, ransomware attacks, whistleblower complaints, and complex fraud.
 
Sumon previously served as the cyber advisor to the Director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), where he counseled FBI leaders on sophisticated nation-state, cyber, insider, and espionage threats facing the US. This included assisting the Director of the FBI in oversight of intelligence and criminal investigations as well as working with the National Security Council and other intelligence, law enforcement, and security agencies in responding to data breaches, insider threats, economic espionage, foreign investment risks, ransomware attacks, and other major criminal and security threats. Sumon helped oversee responses to congressional committees, including preparing the Director for over 20 appearances before House and Senate committees, the Inspector-General’s office, and other oversight bodies. 

Sumon also served as trial attorney with the US Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and as a Special Assistant US Attorney for the District of Maryland. 
 
“As national security related matters, particularly global cyber threats, escalate in complexity and scale, clients are looking for trusted advisors who can navigate both the technical and geopolitical dimensions of risk,” said Widge Devaney, Americas Chair of Baker McKenzie’s Dispute Resolution Practice. “Sumon’s deep experience across the DOJ, the FBI, and private practice positions him perfectly to help clients anticipate, respond to, and mitigate these challenges across jurisdictions. We are thrilled to add him to our team.” 

Sumon will serve as Co-Chair of Baker McKenzie’s National Security Practice. He joins Baker McKenzie from private practice, following the arrival of former US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who also serves as Co-Chair of the practice.  

Added Colin Murray, Baker McKenzie’s Americas Chief Executive Officer, “Sumon’s impeccable reputation and credentials speak for themselves – he is an outstanding addition to our team. Now more than ever companies need integrated guidance across borders to protect their business against emerging threats. Sumon is the trusted advisor who brings nuanced advice and a global view so our clients can navigate these growing risks.” 

“Sumon is one of Washington’s most respected voices in cybersecurity and national security concerns,” said Maurice Bellan, Managing Partner of Baker McKenzie’s Washington, DC office. “He joins our growing team of former senior-level government lawyers advising our clients across a range of risks in an increasingly tense business and geopolitical environment.” 

Baker McKenzie’s National Security Practice offers comprehensive legal services to clients in all industries to address the panoply of legal risks related to US government oversight, enforcement, and national security concerns. The team provides strategic advice, counseling, and representation on a broad range of enforcement, investigation, regulatory, and compliance matters, including FCPA, Anti-Money Laundering, sanctions and export control, customs and import compliance, CFIUS and foreign investment, cybersecurity and data privacy, as well as crisis management and reputational risk. 

Sumon is the latest former senior government official to join Baker McKenzie in Washington, DC. In addition to Rod Rosenstein, the Firm has added former DOJ trial lawyer Tim Finley, former US Treasury official Scott Levine, and former Internal Revenue Service advisor Donna McComber. 

Baker McKenzie’s Litigation and Government Enforcement Practice is the North American component of the firm’s worldwide Dispute Resolutions Practice, one of the most recognized and largest globally, with more than 1,000 disputes lawyers across its more than 70 locations. The team is comprised of battle-tested, globally minded litigators with deep roots in their home jurisdictions. Consistently top-ranked by leading market reviews, the firm frequently handles cases involving novel and precedent-setting issues in countries around the world. 

Sumon commented, “Multinational companies are increasingly looking for integrated, global cybersecurity counseling as well as assistance with investigations that cross multiple jurisdictions and a variety of regulatory and investigative authorities. Baker McKenzie offers an unmatched global platform to serve clients fully in addressing sensitive and sophisticated security and enforcement risks. I’m excited about joining the team.” 

About Sumon Dantiki  

Sumon received his BA from the University of Michigan, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was a Dean’s Merit Scholar. He received his JD from Yale Law School, where he was the winner of the Potter Stewart Prize. He clerked for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is licensed to practice in Illinois and Washington, DC.  

Sumon has been recognized as a leading global cyber practitioner, including by the Financial Times in its 2023 Innovative Lawyers report. A respected authority on cyber and national security topics, Sumon is often quoted in top-tier business and legal press on a range of cybersecurity topics including cyberattacks, encryption, espionage and ransomware attacks.

 

A jump in greenhouse gas pollution in the US helped push global emissions higher in the first half of this year. This could be an omen of what’s to come, with Donald Trump’s pro-fossil fuel agenda set to significantly slow down the emissions cuts required to avoid disastrous climate impacts, a new forecast has found.

The “most abrupt shift in energy and climate policy in recent memory” that has occurred since Trump re-entered the White House will have profound consequences for the global climate crisis by slowing the pace of US emissions cuts by as much as half the rate achieved over the past two decades, the Rhodium Group forecast states.

The US is still expected to reduce its planet-heat emissions by between 26% and 35% by 2035 compared with 2005 levels, according to the report. But this is well down from a 38% to 56% reduction by 2035, which Rhodium forecast just last year during Joe Biden’s presidency.

None of these scenarios will be sufficient to allow the US, the world’s largest historic emitter of carbon pollution, to play its full part in helping the world avert a worsening climate breakdown coming from 2C (3.6F) or more in global heating.

Chart of the projected US emissions under various scenarios falling short of the reduction targets set in the US Paris agreement

The US and other governments agreed a decade ago in Paris to avoid this threshold but are badly off-track in required emissions reductions, ahead of a key UN climate meeting in Brazil in November to thrash out new targets.

Even under the best-case scenario, whereby fossil fuels become much more expensive and cheap renewable energy is swiftly deployed, the US will cut its emissions by just 43% by 2040, Rhodium found – well below Biden’s own pledged target, since jettisoned by Trump.

In the worst case, in which clean energy is severely constrained by economic and political factors, US emissions could even tick up slightly at the end of 2030s, the report states.

“That is very different to where we were before; it’s more than halving the pace of decarbonization we’ve had over the last two decades,” said Ben King, a director at Rhodium.

“The US was already off-track in meeting its contribution to emissions cuts and this is now a fairly big step in the wrong direction. The emissions trajectory is now a lot worse because of this policy whiplash.”

Under Trump’s “drill, baby, drill” agenda, the federal government has thrown open vast areas of land and waters to drilling and mining, ditched the Paris targets and shredded almost all regulations that aim to limit greenhouse gas pollution and the emissions of other air toxins that harm people’s health.

Trump has sought to hobble the clean energy sector in the US, signing a Republican spending bill that kills off incentives for new solar, wind and battery projects and instructing his administration to halt new renewables facilities, even if they were previously approved and nearly completed.

“We don’t allow windmills and we don’t want the solar panels,” the president said recently. Trump, who has a longstanding animus towards wind after objecting to viewing “ugly” wind turbines from his Scottish golf course, has conversely praised “beautiful clean coal” and encouraged fossil fuel producers to bypass pollution rules.

This stance towards renewables, despite the administration demanding more supply to meet growing electricity demand, has already had a tangible impact. Offshore wind farms have been halted, while plans for a battery factory in North Carolina have been canceled and a plant in Michigan has recently been closed.

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In all, nearly 65,000 clean energy jobs have been lost or stalled since Trump’s election, according to the Climate Power group, with household power bills rising as a result of the cuts to cheaper renewables.

“Unfortunately, federal policy obstacles and restrictive mandates are threatening hundreds of billions in planned energy investment,” said Jason Grumet, chief executive of the American Clean Power Association, which last week reported solar installations had plummeted by a quarter in the first half of 2025.

“The uncertainty created by new bureaucratic delays and unclear demands is having a chilling effect on the pipeline for future energy projects, stalling growth precisely when our nation needs more energy to power a growing economy.”

The emissions impact of all of this will become obvious over the next couple of years, Rhodium’s King said. A preview of this can be seen in the first six months of the year, during which US emissions rose by 1.4% compared with the same period last year, according to Climate Trace.

This bump in emissions, aided by a similar rise in Brazil, ensured that global emissions were slightly higher than the first half of 2024, a stark sign of the task ahead for governments in tackling the climate crisis without the leadership of the US, the world’s second largest emitter.

“We won’t see the impacts of the Trump administration in the emissions data for a couple of years, I think,” said King.

“But we are already seeing a slowdown in renewables installations and, to be honest, even a flatlining of emissions is a pretty bad indicator of the trajectory we need to be on.”