Practice Strengths

Baker Hostetler handles major international litigation for clients in the United States and abroad. We represent multinational corporations, sovereign governments and private investors. In today's borderless business community, our clients face disputes in virtually every country in the world. We understand the unique challenges associated with litigating disputes in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa.  We know how to apply the work their diverse treaties and regulations. We effectively anticipate and prevent problems—such as choice of forum, choice of law, jurisdiction, culture and language capabilities for the parties in a transnational dispute.

The range of disputes that we resolve is as broad as our client base, encompassing finance, insurance coverage, asset attachment and recovery, distribution, tax, trade, product liability and violations of international law. We are skilled in specific issues such as sovereign immunity, the enforcement of foreign judgments, international evidence gathering, eDiscovery and the Law of the Sea. We also represent parties in all major international arbitration forums, including the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), American Arbitration Association (AAA), International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and disputes resolved under the UNCITRAL Rules.

Evidence gathering abroad is often an essential factor in succeeding on international claims. We have a network of attorneys and professionals who assist us in assembling the facts from afar. International conventions, letters rogatory and hard work enable us to represent our clients effectively.

We represent parties in all major international arbitration forums.

Leadership in Action

International Litigation: Defended Latin American government in sovereign debt litigation

Client: Latin American government

Type of Matter: Fifty-five lawsuits in 5 countries to recover $10 billion in defaulted sovereign commercial debt

Our Client's Challenge: Defend lawsuits while government was restructuring the economy in accordance with an IMF economic adjustment program.

The Goal: Create bankruptcy principles in U.S. and foreign law when no country has passed a bankruptcy code for governments.

Our Strategy: We aggressively defended the lawsuits and created a factual record demonstrating that the government was making difficult and austere changes in the economy in a manner approved by the IMF. We provided the courts with novel legal theories to justify bankruptcy-like stays of the lawsuits pending the economic adjustments and negotiation of an exchange offer with the country’s commercial creditors.

Results: Almost seven years after the first lawsuits were filed, the client successfully executed an exchange offer with its 180 commercial creditors. The courts imposed stays of creditor lawsuits and denied motions for attachment and execution based upon our novel legal theories. Only one creditor received more than the exchange offer amount.

International Litigation Experience

• Defended sovereign government in lawsuits in five countries arising from defaults in its foreign commercial debts.
• Tried and won a treble damage verdict against the Hunt brothers and others for manipulating silver prices.
• Won and enforced a judgment for ABB Inc., a leader in power and information tech for the energy and utility industries against a Norwegian company, and defended counterclaims, by using international treaties to enforce a U.S. award in Norway.
• Pursue litigation worldwide for a venture investor involving such claims as misrepresentation on a Tokyo real estate project and tax fraud on a three-hotel project in Belgium.
• Acted as lead counsel for a major engineering company in the appeal and overturning in U.S. District Court of an international arbitration award involving a construction project in South America.
• Recovered an Austrian bank's investment in a publicly traded American manufacturer by pursuing securities fraud and other claims in U.S. District Court that resulted in the sale of the manufacturer.
• Won jury verdicts for a German manufacturer and a related company in separate fraud and malpractice cases in Kansas and Virginia—with the Virginia verdict for our client on a counterclaim resulting in one of the largest such awards in the state's history.
• Defended foreign government against $500 million claim alleging denial of justice and other violations of international law at ICSID.
• Handled products liability litigation in the U.S. for, among others, a Greek tour company, a Jamaican resort, a Mexican energy company and a Swedish equipment manufacturer.
• Settled in the U.S. a dispute between a global communications company and a Chinese company over a failed satellite launch.
• Enforced license agreement against Korean licensee in International Chamber of Commerce arbitration.
• Provided services to the governments and individuals to recover assets wrongfully removed from those countries through criminal conduct, loan defaults and other activities.

About Baker Hostetler's Litigation Team

When the stakes are bet-the-company monetary damages, potential criminal sentences, and intense scrutiny in the court of public opinion, the more than 325 litigators of Baker Hostetler are a team to depend on. We have the kind of credentials you expect from a leading national litigation firm and a client base we have protected in and out of court for decades.

What really sets us apart is our practical experience as trial lawyers. The Baker Hostetler team includes former top prosecutors of the U.S. Justice Department (four of whom received the Attorney General's Distinguished Services Award), former prosecutors for major municipalities, veteran civil trial attorneys and enforcement officials from various federal agencies, from the Department of Energy to the SEC and NASD (now FINRA).