Regularly voted the “most feared” law firm in the world, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, with 32 offices and 1000+ lawyers around the world, is an international leader in Global Asset Recovery. Lawyers in this group have decades of experience leading multinational judgment/award creditors’ rights and collection litigation—having run matters spanning more than 20 countries.

Our lawyers have the rare skill of running complex litigation and negotiations against intransigent debtors, and enforcing judgments and arbitral awards in jurisdictions across the globe. Our extensive global footprint allows us draw upon our expertise around the world. Aside from the firm’s exceptional domestic capabilities in the 11 jurisdictions where it operates, our lawyers routinely run international enforcement and recovery campaigns—when necessary, coordinating with trusted law firms in countries where we do not have an office. We work together seamlessly across cultures and time zones, on different continents and in different languages, to offer coordinated, multi-jurisdictional strategies.

As the largest litigation firm in the world, the absence of any corporate practice leaves us free to utilize the full array of powerful strategies against financial institutions and sovereign debtors without conflicts and without any fear of losing opportunities for future transactional matters. For example, we are one of the very few global firms that is free to pursue discovery from money center banks—a form of discovery that provides an exceptionally powerful tool in collections cases. Our extensive experience with this discovery strategy—which our team leaders developed—is unparalleled and allows us to employ a unique approach to developing enforcement avenues that others miss. By employing these unconventional means (e.g., uncovering debtors’ attempts to conceal assets and involvement in embezzlement and other illegal activities), we are able to create leverage and a willingness to settle. We also work closely with trusted investigators, providing well-defined and limited mandates to aid in identifying enforcement targets.

Our multi-disciplinary teams give us the ability to call on our sanctions specialists to advise on the scope of permissible activities with respect to sanctioned sovereigns, persons and entities and to obtain OFAC licenses where necessary.

We routinely handle the following mandates:

Collecting on court judgments and arbitration awards through recognition and enforcement proceedings across the globe;

Applying to courts to obtain discovery orders against banks, trustees and judgment debtors;

Co-ordination of proceedings in multiple jurisdictions before and after judgment;

Piercing corporate veils to recover against assets held by recalcitrant sovereign and private debtors through their affiliates;

Freezing or attaching assets in multiple jurisdictions, pre- and post-judgment—including “World Wide Freezing Orders”;

Obtaining ex parte “search and seize orders” to enter property to prevent the destruction of evidence;

Obtaining ex parte orders to secretly monitor email accounts of recalcitrant judgment debtors; and Conducting “sanctions based litigation” including contempt proceedings against debtors who breach court orders.

While we are known for our stellar results in litigation and arbitration, not all our work involves formal legal proceedings. We have a track record of successfully engaging with stakeholders to reach agreed upon resolutions without the need for contested proceedings. We are also routinely called upon to employ our expertise and network of contacts to assist parties that wish to buy or sell large-value judgments or arbitration awards.

A recent area of growth following the arrival of group Chair Dennis Hranitzky in 2020 is in enforcement litigation against sovereigns and state-owned entities, notably in highly recognized actions against Argentina, Cote d’Ivoire, Curacao, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Djibouti, India, Moldova, Nigeria, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, the National Iranian Oil Company, the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, and the Argentinean provinces of Buenos Aires, Entre Rios, Chubut and La Rioja. Mr. Hranitzky, who is also the Head of our Sovereign Litigation practice, is a leading name in sovereign disputes and enforcement matters. Described by clients as “bright, very sharp, very strategic,” “creative and proactive,” Mr. Hranitzky is one of only five individuals recognized by Legal 500 as “Leading Lawyers” in International Litigation every year since the category’s inception in 2016 and recently achieved Legal 500 “hall of fame” status in this category. Mr. Hranitzky was co-lead of the legal team awarded the Grand Prize for Global Dispute of the Year (2016) by The American Lawyer for the Argentina debt default litigation and settlement on behalf of NML Capital, Ltd. In a matter marked by “firsts,” the team led by Mr. Hranitzky obtained the first ruling from a U.S. court that a central bank is the alter ego of its parent state, the first attachment of assets at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, the arrest of the Argentine Naval frigate ARA Libertad in Ghana, an injunction prohibiting Argentina from paying its restricted bonds without making ratable payments to holders of its defaulted bonds, and an order piercing the corporate veil between the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca (of Panama Papers fame) and its Nevada affiliate. Mr. Hranitzky frequently writes and lectures on sovereign litigation, international litigation and cross-border insolvency, and has been a visiting lecturer on sovereign litigation and insolvency at Stanford Law School and Georgetown University Law School. He is proficient in both Spanish and Portuguese.

Group Co-Chair Kristin N. Tahler is a partner in the Los Angeles Office. Ms. Tahler deploys her acumen around the world, routinely overseeing multi-jurisdictional litigation and strategy through judgment recognition and enforcement. Ms. Tahler is frequently involved in multi-fold litigation and arbitration running in tandem in multiple jurisdictions from the U.S. to the Middle East, U.K., E.U., offshore jurisdictions, and Asia. For more than a decade, a significant portion of her practice has included representing clients from the Middle East, including in enforcement and asset recovery proceedings spanning multiple jurisdictions involving arbitration awards approaching USD 2 billion.

Group Co-Chair Nick Marsh, who is based in the firm’s London office, is experienced in complex cross-border disputes, through both arbitration and litigation. He has been named as a leader by Who’s Who Legal for Asset Recovery. His practice often involves parties from Eastern Europe and the Middle East involved in LCIA Arbitrations and related recognition and enforcement proceedings. He has been ranked by Legal 500 in the hall of fame in Commercial Litigation and as a leading individual in Civil Fraud. He is ranked in Band 1 by Chambers for Civil Fraud and in Chambers Global as an expert in Russian disputes. He has been described as “an excellent, tactical and aggressive litigator who always thinks creatively about putting pressure on the other side.” In Legal 500, his adversaries have described him as “certainly one of the toughest opponents we have come across.” He is fluent in Spanish, French and German.