DLA is a specialist in Global Asset Recovery. Lawyers in this group have experience leading multinational matters regarding judgments and creditors’ rights and collection.

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 to draw upon our expertise around the world.  We work together seamlessly across cultures and time zones, on different continents and in different languages, to offer coordinated, multi-jurisdictional strategies.

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 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 are able to 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.