Shiva Aminian

Shiva advises technology and defense companies on U.S. export controls and sanctions laws, drawing on more than 20 years of experience in international trade and global regulatory matters. She founded and leads Akin’s international trade practice in California and co-heads the firm’s technology sector group. Her work focuses in particular on helping technology companies navigate evolving national security requirements affecting artificial intelligence and data centers.

Shiva advises clients on export control requirements, audits existing programs and helps strengthen compliance processes to meet government expectations. She leads government investigations and develops export compliance programs, including in matters involving subpoenas and potential violations of export controls and sanctions laws. Her work includes advising companies navigating State Department consent agreements arising from violations of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations. She also advises on enforcement and voluntary disclosures alongside Akin colleagues who previously served as Assistant U.S. Attorneys in California.

Through her technology sector leadership, Shiva also helps companies address new regulations and restrictions concerning privacy and data protection, AI and data centers, quantum computing and cryptocurrency. Her work in these areas complements her export controls practice, particularly where emerging technologies raise national security questions.

Chambers USA has ranked Shiva as a Leading Lawyer in International Trade: Export Controls & Economic Sanctions. She has also been named a West Trailblazer by The American Lawyer, a Leader of Influence and Woman of Influence by the Los Angeles Business Journal, and an Asian Leader Worth Watching by The Diversity Journal. Beyond her client practice, Shiva chairs Akin’s Women Firmwide Resource Group in Los Angeles. In that role, she helped facilitate a mentoring program and developed the California Women’s Initiative, which brings together women lawyers from the firm’s West Coast offices.

• Representing U.S. technology companies in criminal enforcement proceedings targeting alleged export control violations and activities involving China.
• Representing both U.S. and non-U.S. companies building data centers abroad to support AI workloads and to address the shortage of advanced computing resources.
• Helping U.S. investors assess and navigate national security risks when investing in data centers projects overseas.
• For a major technology company, helping the company navigate complex export control jurisdiction and classification issues, developing compliance programs that integrate export control gates in key business process, and assisting the company in fulfilling key requirements of its consent agreement with the Department of State.
• Helped develop an award-winning technology-based solution to conduct due diligence on potential military end users (MEUs) in response to evolving regulatory requirements. Akin was recognized with a CIO 100 Award for this MEU tool, a state-of-the-art regulatory tool the firm developed to help clients comply with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s export control restrictions against conveying certain items where the provider has knowledge that the item is intended for a “military end use” or “military end user” in China, Russia or Venezuela. The application automates our clients’ diligence in determining the MEU status of their customers. According to CIO, the awards are an “acknowledged mark of enterprise excellence.”
• For major technology companies, helped navigate and conduct internal investigations around the extraterritorial application of the EAR’s foreign produced direct product rule.
• Leading investigations and subpoena response for major technology companies, as the Office of Export Control Enforcement ramps up its scrutiny of U.S. technology companies’ partnerships with Chinese entities.

• J.D., American University, Washington College of Law, cum laude, 2004

• B.A., Washington University in St. Louis, cum laude, 2000

• California

• District of Columbia

• Chambers USA, International Trade: Export Controls & Economic Sanctions, 2025-2026.
• Diversity Journal, Women Worth Watching in Leadership, 2024.
• Daily Journal, Top AI Lawyers, 2024.
• The Legal 500 US, International Trade: Customs, Export Controls and Economic Sanctions, 2023-2025.
• The American Lawyer, West Trailblazers, 2022.
• Diversity Journal, Asian Leaders Worth Watching, 2022.
• Los Angeles Business Journal, Women of Influence: Attorneys, 2023.
• Los Angeles Business Journal, Leaders of Influence: Minority Attorneys, 2022.

• French

• Farsi