LAW PRACTICE PROFILE
My practice focuses on international commercial litigation and arbitration, in particular cases related to Russia, other countries of the former USSR, and Israel. My experience includes over ten years of practice with prominent New York litigation firms, nine years residence in Moscow representing Russian and foreign companies and Russian government agencies in international transactions, and clerkships in U.S. federal trial and appellate courts and the Israel Supreme Court. I am fluent in Russian and Hebrew and proficient in German.
My experience as a litigator in the United States and as a transactional lawyer in Russia enables me to handle the special aspects of cross-border litigation and arbitration, such as international procedure, foreign law, foreign documents, and choosing and working with foreign counsel, expert witnesses, and interpreters. For example, from 2002 to 2009, I participated in the defense of a major law firm in a New York malpractice litigation that resulted in summary judgment for the client law firm. The litigation focused on the correctness of the law firm’s advice on Russian tax and securities law, the nature of Russian law enforcement actions that according to the plaintiff destroyed its investment banking business, and the value of the business. I had primary responsibility for evidentiary proceedings in Austria, Hungary, England, and Russia, working with expert witnesses on Russian law, and designing and implementing the review of Russian and German documents, and I was a core team member on all other aspects of the case.
I launched my independent New York-based practice in 2009. With individual attention to each client, and through cooperation with other law firms in the United States and abroad, I can litigate large and small cases efficiently. I endeavor to provide the same quality service that brought success to my previous independent law firm venture, which began in Moscow in 1993.
REPRESENTATIVE CASES*
- Defending a legal malpractice action arising out of Russian securities transactions (summary judgment for client)
- Asserting a customer's claim against a leading U.S. brokerage over transactions in South America (settlement satisfying 80% of client’s claim, without litigation)
- Bringing an Israeli medical organization's fraud claims against its U.S. fundraiser (settlement after partial summary judgment for client)
- Pursuing a generic drug manufacturer's antitrust claims against a competitor (settlement after client’s claims reinstated as result of successful appeal)
- Defending an individual in a New York state consumer protection proceeding (claims withdrawn without litigation)
- Representing the estate of a Soviet World War II photographer in U.S. litigation and transactions (litigation pending)
- Opposing a life insurance claim by beneficiaries of an alleged decedent in Russia (pending)
- Defending a developer in a construction arbitration (settlement after award following two-week hearing)
- Representing a war crimes suspect in an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Special Investigations
- Advising foreign banks on defenses against U.S. jurisdiction over international funds transfers
- Representing in a government civil proceeding one of the two computer programmers charged civilly and criminally with aiding Bernard Madoff in his multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme (pending)
* PRIOR RESULTS DO NOT GUARANTEE A SIMILAR OUTCOME.
LANGUAGES
Russian and Hebrew (fluent), German (working knowledge), English (native)EDUCATION
Cornell Law School, J.D. (Editor-in-Chief, Cornell International Law Journal, 1984-85)Cornell University, A.B.
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, M.A., Political Science (Soviet studies)
JUDICIAL CLERKSHIPS
Israel Supreme Court (Judges Aharon Barak and Eliezer Goldberg)U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit (Judge Albert Engel)
U.S. District Court, Northern District of New York (Chief Judge Howard G. Munson)