USC’s Gould School of Law has launched a new center aimed at training attorneys to navigate an increasingly complex global business economy. The USC Center for Transnational Law and Business is led by director Brian Peck, who previously served as deputy director of international affairs and business development for Gov. Jerry Brown and has worked as a USC adjunct professor for the past seven years.

The center will focus on teaching new generations of attorneys how to navigate international trade and compliance policies, and will bring together trade and business law and policy to discover better ways for companies to conduct business across borders, said Peck.

“This is an area that needs (an) increasing amount of attention, but at this point there’s been very little first-rate scholarship in this area,” he said.

As director, Peck said he’ll spend the first few months developing the program, including a comprehensive curriculum of classes that will launch next fall. A limited number of classes will be available in the spring.

The center will also serve as a forum for debate, discussion, and development of new policies in the field of transnational business law.

“The mission of the center is to engage in cutting-edge research in the area of international law and business and to bring academics, business people, lawyers, and government officials together to discuss and debate the most important topics in the field,” Andrew Guzman, dean of the law school, said in a statement.

The law center will host a conference in January that addresses international antitrust issues, specifically those faced by tech companies. Scheduled to participate are a U.S. Federal Trade Commission commissioner and trade representatives from Japan and Canada.