Publications, Presentations & Events Archive

Carol Van Cleef authored a chapter in this treatise in which industry leaders provide insightful analysis on how emerging advances in Web3, Blockchain, and Metaverse law interact within new and existing legal frameworks. Formerly published as A Practical Guide to Smart Contracts and Blockchain Law.

Cristian Francos will moderate a panel at the inaugural IBA Arbitration and Criminal Law Conference. 

Tim Taylor K.C. is the first overseas lawyer to be featured in the Beverly Hills Bar Association's War Stories series. He will explain how the principles used in commercial mediation can also be used in the peace process, based on his experience with drafting a framework peace agreement for Darfur and working on the Peace Project in Yemen.

Cristián Francos moderated a panel exploring the growing trend to arbitrate disputes emerging from compliance investigations related to potential criminal conduct and will discuss the varying ways national courts review and accept any arbitral decisions in this area.

Partner Tara Plochocki will be speaking on "The evolving impact of sanctions on commercial contracts" as part of London International Disputes Week.

Partner Cristián Francos will co-chair a session on trends in global sanctions enforcement at the International Bar Association's 25th Annual Transnational Crime Conference.

Cristián Francos discussed the operation of Money Service Businesses without a license, US government enforcement and prosecution, and the impact for local financial actors.

Cristián Francos is Senior Vice Chair of the IBA’s Business Crime Committee and will be co-chairing “The transfer of criminal liability in M&A” session on November 3rd.

Adam Kaufmann served as a panelist for this CLE on federal and local enforcement trends in the construction industry.

Adam Kaufmann co-chaired the panel "Covid-19 fraud: law enforcement and where we are now."

On October 19, 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted Guantánamo detainee Asadullah Haroon Gul’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus, ruling that his detention is unlawful. The decision marks the first time a Guantánamo Bay detainee has won a habeas corpus petition in the last ten years.

U.S. government surveillance has repeatedly been in the news, highlighting the larger U.S. surveillance system of foreigners and the incidental gathering of Americans’ communications.  The U.S. government’s surveillance capabilities and long-standing policies have sparked concern and reaction from the European Union (“EU”), and now, in response to a European court ruling, European partners are reaching out to their U.S. counterparts asking to amend existing contracts to strengthen or install protections concerning European data.  How U.S. entities respond to such requests can determine whether their commercial relationships continue uninterrupted and potentially give them a leg up against the competition.

A. Katherine Toomey gave a presentation on U.S. "sunshine laws" at the International Business Law Consortium Annual General Meeting, held September 30–October 1, 2021.

One source commented, “I can’t think of an improvement to its practice. We’ve worked with several leading international law firms and in our experience when it comes to complex, high-stakes issues Lewis Baach provides unmatched value.”

Elizabeth Vélez successfully petitioned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services for lawful permanent residence (commonly known as a green card) on behalf of an undocumented client who was the victim of domestic violence.

Chambers and Partners has again recognized Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss in the area of insurance, including both the firm's insurance practice and Martin Baach in its District of Columbia rankings for 2021.  

What are the pitfalls and best practices in vetting #MeToo accusations; how to preserve privacy and work with NDAs; defending libel claims when the alleged abuser or victim claims the other is a liar; are the standards the same for both alleged abusers and victims?; for the media that reports on it? 

The United States needs to consider carefully whether its treaty advantages and broad jurisdictional statutes should be aggressively used to bring foreign defendants to the United States when the American interest is limited and when other countries may have a greater interest in applying their own statutes, and their own penalty structures.

As the suicide of U.S. Olympics gymnastics coach John Geddert, and the sexual abuse suit against previous coach Don Peters, reverberate across the globe, it will be all too easy for governing bodies to again dismiss the abuse allegations as isolated incidents.

LBKM wins summary judgment for pro bono client sued for defamation after sharing letter detailing sexual harassment.

In a decision issued on Feb. 5, the U.K. Supreme Court quashed a notice pursuant to Section 2(3) of the 1987 Criminal Justice Act, that sought to require a U.S. corporation, KBR Inc., to produce documents located in the U.S.  The decision has important consequences for cross-border discovery and investigations, as the U.S. and the U.K. appear to be taking divergent approaches.

The U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia recently denied a petition to recognize and enforce an international arbitration award against a government-owned airline on jurisdictional grounds.  The decision in UAB Skyroad Leasing Inc. v. OJSC Tajik Air, 20-cv-0763 (D.D.C. Jan. 26, 2021) illustrates the hurdles to enforcing an arbitral award against a foreign state-owned enterprise, even when that enterprise is engaged in pure commercial activities and controlled by the state. 

The Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation has nothing to do with federal law, public acts, or violations involving the political or electoral process. Moreover, as possible charges brought by a sovereign state, they cannot be pardoned by an outgoing President.

The U.S. Senate joined the House of Representatives and passed the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, a defense spending bill, which included the Corporate Transparency Act (the “Act”).  That Act sets forth an expansion for the disclosure requirements for certain US and non-US companies doing business in the United States. 

In the dying days of his administration, President Trump has moved to smash the civil service.  Through Executive Order 13957 (“EO 13957” or the “EO”), the President aims to carve out an entire new class of civil servants, sheering them from long-standing federal protections designed to create a professional, apolitical federal workforce.  Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss is investigating the scope of the Executive Order and possible remedies available to affected civil servants.

This year has seen a push for reform of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act from both sides of the aisle. While the parties’ positions on what and how regulation should change differ greatly, they agree that Section 230 is overly broad and has allowed platform providers to amass an undesirable amount of control over the content available on the internet.

Eric Lewis is interviewed extensively in The Andorra Hustle, a documentary by Eric Merola about FinCEN's use of the USA PATRIOT Act to shut down Banca Privada d'Andorra.

The Second Circuit held that 28 U.S.C. § 1782(a) cannot be used to support petitions for discovery for use in private foreign commercial arbitrations, settling an issue that has lingered unresolved in the circuit since 2004. The new decision, In re Guo, puts the Second Circuit squarely at odds with recent decisions issued by other circuit courts, raising the possibility that the Supreme Court will take up the issue next session to resolve the split. While Guo does not impact the ability of parties to foreign public arbitrations and litigations to take § 1782(a) discovery, for now at least, parties to private foreign arbitrations may have to look to more favorable circuits outside New York for relief.

A. Katherine Toomey moderated the International Business Law Consortium event IBLC 2020: Trends in Bankruptcy and Insolvency and gave a presentation on Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The health effects of Covid-19 have created personal tragedies that seemed unimaginable a few short months ago. Despite the efforts of governments, the virus has shown that the world is inextricably interconnected. How we respond will dictate whether that interconnectedness is a positive or negative force as we try to recover from the economic crisis that has arisen in the wake of the pandemic. In Latin America, individuals and companies have either begun to see, or fear, the return of currency controls, defaults and chaos as the governments of the region confront historic challenges. Many have once again sought refuge in the perceived relative safety of the U.S. financial system. However, investors may find that their sudden search for a safe haven may bring on a series of unanticipated problems.

There is a popular misconception that asset forfeiture is limited to the luxury cars, private jets and speedboats of drug dealers, but many well-meaning businesses and individuals are finding themselves with their assets seized under statutes that provide U.S. authorities extremely broad powers. And these seizures often occur without any warning to, or even accusation against, the owner of the assets. Once seized it can take years to obtain recovery of perfectly legal assets. In these uncertain times, as many well-meaning people seek the relative safety of the U.S. banking system, individuals and companies in many countries may innocently use money-transfer systems that exponentially increase the risk of having their assets seized. Why does this happen and how can it be avoided?

The coronavirus pandemic has not only caused untold misery, it has forced the virtual shutdown of the global economy. Everyone hopes that this crisis will pass, but events have shown there is a false choice between mitigation and resumption of economic activity. Mitigation, with testing and social distancing, must be done to avoid wave after wave of disease, which will only lead to rolling cessations of economic activity. Given the economic dislocation occasioned by this global crisis and that it is likely to continue for at least a few more months, we can anticipate that many businesses will fail, and others will require time and help to restore financial health and operations. There is little doubt that innumerable global businesses will need the protection of an organized and coordinated insolvency and reorganization process as soon as this crisis is over. The time for them to begin planning is now.

In recent weeks, the world has been engulfed by the spread of COVID-19 as governments scramble to protect their citizens and avoid the collapse of public health systems and long-term damage to their economies. The wide-ranging efforts to flatten the curve of COVID-19 has created a tidal wave of ramifications for an international business community that is today more interconnected than ever, and led to high levels of uncertainty surrounding current and future contractual obligations. At a time when government policies fluctuate daily and courts and arbitration centers are becoming increasingly inaccessible to resolve active disputes, it is difficult for a party to seek or obtain interim measures or relief. From country to country and company to company, the responses have not been uniform: some commercial parties have continued to perform their obligations, while others have argued for wholesale abdication of their responsibilities, and still others are somewhere in between. Certain trends of government action and commercial response are emerging worldwide, no less so in the hyper-connected global businesses that are found in the Middle East.

Having practiced law in the United States for more than twenty years, it is the American jury system that seems to be the greatest source of confusion, mystery and sometimes fear for clients. Many of them have seen the classic jury room movie Twelve Angry Men or, more recently, Runaway Jury, and fear that an unreasonable jury will bankrupt their companies or convict them of crimes they did not commit. For all of the questions about juries I have answered over the years, I now have a new experience on which to draw – two months ago I was a juror on a federal criminal jury trial. I was surprised by what I learned inside the jury box and inside the jury room and it changed some of my own assumptions about juries.

Creating a potential Catch-22 for the adult survivors given the opportunity to bring claims during the one year look-back period, the COVID-19 crisis has closed state courts to any new civil case filings and effectively stopped any of these cases from proceeding.

In these tough times, when clients are looking to protect assets and increase revenue, it is more important than ever to ensure that their arbitral awards are collectible. A truly successful outcome requires the ability to enforce and monetize the award that was won in the arbitration. When faced with a recalcitrant award debtor, it is imperative to think strategically and work closely with counsel and experts to enforce and identify recoverable assets.

Banks serving clients in the many countries the U.S. views as high risk for money laundering should be aware that the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, plans to expand its use of “special measures” to fight money laundering and terrorist financing. 

Cristián Francos lectured on FCPA principles at the University of Buenos Aires School of Law’s Masters program in Criminal Law, Corporate Criminal Liability and Compliance section.  

Lewis Baach Kaufmann Middlemiss partner Cristián Francos spoke at ACI's Anti-Corruption Compliance for High Risk Markets conference on July 24, 2019 in Washington, D.C.