Our judgment enforcement and asset protection practice is among the best in the world. We enforce and collect on judgments won through hard-fought arbitration and litigation. A favorable judgment or award is just the first hurdle. Collecting the money can be just as, if not more, challenging. We skillfully navigate various domestic and international laws to enforce judgments, including against foreign governments.
We have won and enforced arbitral awards and judgments for our clients in the eight, nine, and even 10-figure range that have been enforced both in the United States and abroad.
The best way to enforce a judgment is to secure assets while a claim is pending well before the judgment. We have used these methods to great success. One example is our work for ExxonMobil against Venezuela. We obtained a series of attachments and freezing orders worldwide for ExxonMobil before an arbitral award was issued, including attaching over US$300 million in cash in a proceeding in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The frozen funds were released – with interest – to ExxonMobil in partial satisfaction of an arbitral award. Recounting the episode in his book Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll wrote, “For the Steptoe attorneys the late-December Friday afternoon seizure of $300 million belonging to Hugo Chávez’s government was like hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth before a full house at Yankee Stadium.”
Recently, Steptoe represented SourceHOV Holdings LLC in a judgment enforcement litigation stemming from the merger that created Exela Technologies. In May 2021, a Delaware vice chancellor refused to dismiss a judgment creditor’s suit seeking traditional and "reverse" corporate veil piercing against Exela and its subsidiaries in order to collect on a $60 million-plus-interest merger stock appraisal award. This was the first case in which reverse veil piercing was permitted in Delaware has been closely watched by national media outlets, including Bloomberg Law, Law360, Levin Insights and Reuters. The Steptoe team also obtained the appointment of a receiver in a Dallas, Texas court over the debtor’s property.
Steptoe also represented Motorola in its claims against the Uzan family, which formerly owned the Turkish telecom company Telsim, concerning fraudulent conduct in connection with a $2 billion loan. Our team obtained a worldwide freezing order in the London commercial courts and obtained a fully contested fraud judgment for $2.13 billion in compensatory damages and a punitive damages judgment for $1 billion in federal court in New York City, and obtained an ICC arbitration award for $2 billion. See, e.g., Ben Hallman, Turkish Bath, American Lawyer (Winter 2007); David Segal, Bidders Vie for Family’s Ill-Gotten Digs, Wash. Po. at C1 (Nov. 11, 2004).
Our Winning Approach
We are able to successfully enforce judgments and secure assets through a multistep process that includes:
- Searching for pre-judgment remedies to secure assets, which can often be obtained in support of a court action and/or arbitration in certain litigations. We have developed good working relationships with investigators whose experience is often crucial to successful enforcement when debtors take steps to hide their assets.
- Seeking enforcement of court judgments in various courts across the globe by seeking assets either in the name of the judgment-debtor or against other parties who hold those assets through attempts to camouflage what is owned by the debtor.
- Undertaking enforcement actions in commercial and investor-state arbitrations pursuant to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards as adopted and implemented in the state of enforcement or under other international agreements.
Representative Matters
- Represented SourceHOV Holdings LLC in judgment enforcement litigation stemming from the merger that created Exela Technologies by securing a first-of-its-kind ruling from a Delaware vice chancellor who refused to dismiss a judgment creditor’s suit seeking traditional and "reverse" corporate veil piercing against Exela and its subsidiaries in order to collect on a nearly $58 million-plus-interest merger stock appraisal award. This matter was widely reported in the media, including Bloomberg Law, Law360, LevFin Insights and Reuters.
- Converted ExxonMobil’s multibillion-dollar ICSID and ICC awards as against Venezuela and PDVSA into judgments in the Southern District of New York.
- Led the Steptoe team that represented Motorola in its claims against the Uzan family, concerning fraudulent conduct in connection with a $2 billion loan. The team obtained a worldwide freezing order in the London commercial courts, which was affirmed by the English Court of Appeals; froze and liquidated assets worldwide; and obtained a fully contested fraud judgment for $2.13 billion in compensatory damages and a punitive damages judgment for $1 billion in federal court in New York City. These judgments were affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Steptoe successfully enforced the judgment and arbitral award in various countries throughout the world, including the United States, England, France, Switzerland, Germany, Israel, Bermuda, and Guernsey.
- Advised various sovereign states in their responses to efforts to enforce judgments against them.
- Represented Societa Explosivi Industriali SpA in its successful action to enforce major Swiss arbitration award against L3 Fuzing and Ordnance Systems, Inc. in the US District Court for the District of Delaware (See SEI Societa Esplosivi Industriali SpA v. L‐3 Fuzing and Ordnance Systems, Inc).
- Represented claimants in Siag & Vecchi v. Arab Republic of Egypt, in the successful enforcement of a $130 million ICSID award that was the largest award ever issued to an individual as against Egypt.
- Assisted various clients with pre-judgment and judgment enforcement remedies, including, but not limited to, Louis Vuitton, Glitnir Bank, multinational oil companies and others.
News & Publications
First Tuesday Update
Mastering Dispute Resolution Clauses: Three Drafting Tips to Improve Arbitral Award Enforcement
April 2, 2024
By: Steven K. Davidson, Michael J. Baratz, Molly Bruder Fox, Steven R. Kaplan
First Tuesday Update
2020 PDVSA Bonds – Expect the Unexpected
March 5, 2024
By: Steven K. Davidson, Michael J. Baratz, Molly Bruder Fox, Emma Marshak
First Tuesday Update
"Should I Stay or Should I Go?" Supreme Court to Address Circuit Clash Over Arbitration Procedures
February 6, 2024
By: Steven K. Davidson, Michael J. Baratz, Molly Bruder Fox, Mark Murphy
First Tuesday Update
December 5, 2023
By: Steven K. Davidson, Michael J. Baratz, Molly Bruder Fox, Cannon Jurrens
First Tuesday Update
Private Rights of Action in Federal Statutes
October 3, 2023
By: Steven K. Davidson, Shannen W. Coffin, Michael J. Baratz, Molly Bruder Fox, Mark Murphy, Cannon Jurrens
First Tuesday Update
Is ICSID a Governmental Entity for Section 1782 Discovery?
September 5, 2023
By: Steven K. Davidson, Michael J. Baratz, Molly Bruder Fox, Emma Marshak