Tariff Refund Project minimalist logo

Full-Service Expertise
Always A Fair Price, Always On Contingency


Led by Matthew Seligman, Counsel of Record on a Supreme Court Brief That Helped Overturn the IEEPA Tariffs

Matthew Seligman

Federal Litigator and Legal Scholar

A man in formal business attire, wearing a suit and tie, posing against a plain grey background.

“There’s a very, very significant risk that importers who don’t have good trade counsel are going to end up in this situation where the Supreme Court said these are unlawful, but they’re never going to get their money back.”
- Matthew Seligman, Politico

  • Harvard Law School - Former faculty

  • Yale Law School - Former faculty

  • Stanford Law School - Current Fellow

  • Extensive experience advising on complex federal constitutional and trade matters

  • Federal appellate litigation experience

  • U.S. Supreme Court practitioner

  • Quoted in Bloomberg, NY Times, Politico, and the Wall Street Journal

  • Appeared on CNN and MSNBC

  • Guest on Executive Functions podcast on tariffs

How We Work

  • We provide instructions to share your entry data with us. This process takes less than five minutes and allows us to obtain the data we need to produce a complete analysis of your refund opportunity and the steps required to claim it.

    This analysis is completely free of charge.  There is no commitment on your part and no obligation to work with us.

    If you don’t already have an active ACE portal account, we provide instructions on how to open one.

  • At this point, if you wish to move forward we will provide customized pricing based on your particular situation and an engagement letter for you to sign.


    Our tiered fee structure ensures you only pay for work you need. The cost to has us file your CAPE declaration is low enough that most clients find it is largely or fully covered by the interest they are owed.

    Our contingency business model also means you pay nothing up front and our services are entirely free if you don’t receive a refund.

  • We prepare and file your CAPE declaration, the first phase of the recovery process.

    We are proud to offer an exceptional level of service to our clients. We will file your CAPE declaration within 24 hours once your contract is signed and you have provided us shared access to your ACE account, or discount our fee by 25%.

  • Collect your CAPE-eligible refund from the Treasury electronically via ACH. 

    Only at this point, once you’ve received your money, do you pay our success fee.

  • If you have any entries that are not CAPE-eligible, we can handle those too. We will provide you with a full analysis of your additional refund opportunity and the steps required to obtain it before proceeding.

  • Depending on the precise status of your entries and your interest in pursuing them, this step may include administrative protests or litigation.

    You will not need to bring a customs lawyer into the process at this late stage because you are already working with one. 

    Everything is handled by the same team you’ve been working with throughout.

Who We Help

Frequently Asked Questions

  • It depends on your definition of “automatic”. The Court of International Trade has ordered the government to pay refunds and CBP has built the CAPE portal to provide them.

    But actually getting your money involves successfully completing a complicated filing. The way CBP built the portal, a mistake on even one entry leads to rejection of your entire filing.

    Let our expert team do it for you and avoid mistakes, wasted time, and missed refund opportunities.

  • The process to obtain a refund involves a lot of deadlines, all of which are final. Every deadline that’s missed makes a refund on that entry more difficult, time-consuming and expensive to obtain.

    Acting now ensures you maximize your recovery with the minimum amount of work and cost.

  • A formal protest is an official filing with U.S. Customs that preserves your right to pursue a refund on tariff payments.

    Older entries are not currently covered by CAPE, and an administrative protest is how you stop the clock on liquidation.

    A protest filing is even more detailed than a CAPE declaration, with many more opportunities for mistakes.

    Protests should ideally be filed by a lawyer to ensure the paperwork is done properly and your rights are fully protected.

  • Yes! As a matter of fact, you cannot file a protest until an entry has liquidated. Once that happens though, you have a limited window to file of 180 days.

    If that deadline is missed, the entry is normally considered final and the prospects for a recovery become much more uncertain.

  • No, you can file protests yourself through Customs’ online systems or even represent yourself in federal court. However, the administrative and legal processes are technical and time-sensitive.

    Errors in filing administrative protests or federal litigation can result in losing your refund rights.  Experienced legal representation helps reduce mistakes and increases the chance your rights are preserved and pursued effectively.

  • Legal services are provided by Grayhawk Law. The lead attorney for clients in this matter is Matthew A. Seligman, founder and principal of Grayhawk Law.

  • Our pricing model is simple, and always 100% on contingency. You never pay anything unless and until you receive a refund.

    We charge a small percentage of your recovery, with the exact amount dependent on the steps that are required to obtain it. CAPE filings are the least expensive, while protests and litigation are more involved and therefore carry higher percentage fees.

    Learn more on our pricing page here.

  • Schedule a free consultation with us to evaluate your claim and determine the best course of action. Many clients only need us to file a CAPE declaration, which is low-cost and often results in cash hitting your bank account within a week or two!

    Click here to schedule a free 15-minute consultation with a member of our team.