Overview
Richard O. "Dick" Cunningham, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP and a pioneer in international trade law, died on November 26, 2021, at the age of 79.
Born in Washington, DC on July, 24 1942, Cunningham received his J.D. from George Washington University in 1968 before joining Steptoe as an associate two years later. He went on to become a larger-than-life force in international trade law, harnessing intellect, creativity and prodigious talent, which he brought to both trade litigation and policy. He did this while bringing great prominence to Steptoe – where he spent his entire career – and served as a mentor to some of the country’s leading international trade lawyers.
A Leading Litigator
Cunningham played a key role in international trade disputes involving some of the world’s largest and best-known companies. He built a deep bench of talent at Steptoe and his clients included Boeing, British Steel and Occidental Petroleum as well as Harley-Davidson, in a case that helped revitalize that company and is now regularly cited in law and economic textbooks. He was also a leader of the Steptoe team that took a trade dispute before the U.S. Department of Commerce all the way to a successful outcome at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009.
"Dick's ebullience and joy in the craft of advocacy were infectious," said Ambassador Susan Esserman, a former Deputy US Trade Representative and co-chair of Steptoe’s International Trade Policy practice, who first worked with Cunningham as a junior associate. "Dick was a brilliant lawyer with preternatural litigation gifts. In the middle of a hearing while listening attentively to testimony, he would simultaneously write a detailed, compelling, and dazzling oral argument. He had a love for the challenge of litigation, and the supreme confidence that he would prevail for his clients."
Cunningham handled some of the most significant U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty cases over the past 50 years. In antidumping cases, he was known particularly for his results in proceedings involving complex manufactured products, and for cases involving imports from non-market economies and economies in transition. In countervailing duty law, he had unparalleled experience in cases involving capital subsidies, privatization, and research and development subsidies. He was also known for achieving negotiated resolutions of import relief proceedings and played an important role in the negotiation and revision of a suspension agreement involving the import of uranium from the Russian Federation.
"Dick is the best international trade lawyer that I ever saw," said Gary N. Horlick, a leading international trade lawyer who joined Steptoe as an associate in 1976, and who later became Head of Import Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce. "He'd get this glint in his eye when he knew what it would take for his client to win – and when you saw it, you knew you were about to hear something wonderful."
A Focus on Policy
Cunningham also advised his clients on bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations, decisions in discretionary trade law cases, market-access initiatives, legislation and governmental policies on trade and trade-related areas such as intellectual property, government procurement, standards, export controls, taxation and issues relating to trade in services.
Cunningham also advised the Korean government in its negotiations with the United States on the Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement, and the Mexican Confederation of Industries in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) negotiations. In the past few years, he consulted with government officials and business leaders in the United Kingdom in the runup and aftermath to Brexit.
An Authority and a Mentor
Cunningham made contributions not only to the growth and sustained development of Steptoe’s international trade practice, but to the international trade bar as a whole. He chaired the international committees in the American Bar Association Sections of International Law & Policy, Litigation, Administrative Law and Public Contract Law, and was Chair of the Standing Committee on Customs Law and Co-Chair of the Joint Task Force on the Relationship of Trade Law and Competition Law. He also served as a senior officer or board member of The Cordell Hull Institute, The Global Business Dialogue and The Canada-United States Law Institute, and Seoul's Institute for Trade & Investment as well as an advisor to London's prestigious Centre for European Reform.
He helped to launch the careers of many international trade lawyers at Steptoe and others in the trade bar, a number of whom went on to serve with distinction in high official positions within the U.S. government and in leadership positions in international trade organizations in Washington, D.C., and beyond.
Eric Emerson, co-head of the firm's International Trade and Regulatory Group, was one of the many lawyers who learned the craft from Cunningham. "Dick was a fantastic mentor. His style was to give his younger colleagues wide autonomy and independence – usually more than we felt comfortable with – while at the same time providing input and guidance when requested. It was a winning formula for training."
"Dick was a member of the Steptoe family for more than five decades so encapsulating his impact on the firm’s history in just a few words is impossible," said Steptoe Chair Phil West. "Dick is renowned for shaping international trade law, and the current and continued strength of our international trade practice is a legacy of which he was rightly proud."
Cunningham is survived by his wife of 26 years, Judy, and their three children and four grandchildren.