Cross-Border Litigation

When a dispute crosses borders, the ordinary litigation playbook breaks down. Parties sit in different countries, evidence and assets are scattered across jurisdictions, and the threshold questions (which court hears the case, whose law governs, and where any judgment can actually be enforced) often matter more than the merits. Multi-jurisdictional commercial disputes, parallel proceedings, sovereign defendants, and foreign judgment enforcement all share a common feature: getting the strategy wrong at the outset can cost years and put any eventual recovery out of reach.

At Seiden Law, cross-border litigation is the core of the practice. The firm represents multinational companies, sovereign governments, funds, high-net-worth individuals, and defrauded investors and creditors in the disputes that most define careers and enterprises. Whether pulling a foreign adversary into U.S. jurisdiction, defending a foreign client dragged into U.S. courts, or coordinating litigation across several forums at once, the firm brings courtroom advocacy together with an integrated investigative and enforcement capability built for exactly this work.

Comprehensive Cross-Border Capabilities

The firm’s attorneys handle the full range of issues unique to disputes that span jurisdictions.

Jurisdiction and the long-arm statute. The long-arm statute cuts both ways, and the firm works it in both directions. It pulls foreign adversaries into U.S. jurisdiction where its clients hold the procedural and strategic advantages of home-court litigation, and it defends foreign clients dragged into U.S. courts when jurisdiction should not attach, moving to dismiss claims that do not belong. Contesting or establishing personal jurisdiction is frequently where a cross-border case is won or lost.

Parallel proceedings and forum strategy. Cross-border disputes often unfold in more than one country at once. The firm coordinates parallel proceedings, pursues and opposes anti-suit relief, litigates forum non conveniens, and sequences filings across forums so that a step in one jurisdiction strengthens rather than undermines the position in another.

Foreign judgment and award recognition. A favorable judgment or award is only as good as its enforcement. The firm obtains recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards in U.S. courts, and resists recognition where a foreign judgment should not stand, then carries the matter through to collection.

Sovereign and state-connected parties. Disputes involving governments, government officials, and state-connected entities raise immunity questions under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act that shape both the litigation and any enforcement. The firm has litigated for and against sovereign and sovereign-adjacent parties, including representations of foreign governments, and understands the immunity, attachment, and political constraints that govern them.

Cross-border evidence and discovery. Reaching evidence held abroad, and defending against overreaching foreign discovery aimed at U.S.-based parties, requires tools most domestic litigators rarely use. The firm deploys discovery under 28 U.S.C. § 1782, navigates the Hague Evidence Convention and foreign data-protection regimes, and manages the conflicts that arise when U.S. discovery obligations collide with foreign privacy law.

Service, procedure, and enforceability abroad. Service under the Hague Service Convention, authentication and apostille requirements, and the procedural differences between common-law and civil-law systems all affect whether a case can be brought and a judgment enforced. The firm builds these considerations into strategy from the first filing rather than confronting them at the end.

Related Areas of Focus

Several of the firm’s cross-border capabilities are substantial enough to stand on their own. Each is covered in depth on its own page.

Judgment Enforcement. Domestic and cross-border enforcement of judgments and awards, asset tracing, turnover proceedings, and enforcement against concealed and offshore holdings.

International Arbitration. Commercial and treaty arbitration across the major institutions, court proceedings in aid of arbitration, and recognition and enforcement of awards under the New York Convention.

Section 1782 Discovery. Obtaining U.S. discovery for use in foreign proceedings, and resisting Section 1782 applications that reach too far.

Chapter 15 and Cross-Border Insolvency. Recognition of foreign insolvency proceedings and recovery of U.S.-based assets on behalf of foreign representatives and creditors.

Sanctions and OFAC. Delisting petitions, licensing, and litigation involving U.S. economic sanctions, frequently intertwined with cross-border disputes.

The Seiden Law Advantage: An Integrated Team

Cross-border litigation rewards firms that can run legal and factual strategies at the same time. Most litigation firms outsource the investigative work, which introduces delay and severs the connection between what investigators find and what the lawyers can do with it. Seiden Law runs those functions together. Forensic accountants, financial analysts, former FBI agents, and former intelligence officers work alongside the firm’s litigators as a single team, drawing on prior service at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and in U.S. law enforcement.

That structure is decisive where a dispute involves fraud, concealed assets, or an adversary who will not comply. The firm traces value across jurisdictions and layered entities, builds the evidentiary record that cross-border cases turn on, and carries a matter from the first jurisdictional motion through to the enforcement of a judgment. Many of our clients came to the firm after another firm had called a matter too risky or not worth the fight. Those are the engagements the practice was built for and what drives clients to seek our help on all their matters.

Global Reach, Local Execution

The firm’s matters span the globe, from the United States and Europe to China, Russia, Asia, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Over the years it has built trusted relationships with leading local counsel, regulatory specialists, and financial experts in key commercial and financial hubs. For any multi-jurisdictional dispute, Seiden Law acts as lead strategic counsel, coordinating the broader team so that local advice from each jurisdiction is integrated into a single coherent strategy and the matter moves forward on a consistent track across forums.

Each representation is approached as a whole, guided by the client’s objectives and the cultural and procedural distinctions between jurisdictions rather than treating every forum as interchangeable. Clients benefit from senior-level attention and the responsiveness of a close-knit team, combined with the reach and execution of a truly global practice.

Where Cross-Border Litigation Meets the Deal

Not every cross-border matter begins as a dispute. Many begin as transactions that later come apart. The firm’s litigation practice works alongside its Cross-Border Transactions practice, and the two inform each other: deals are structured with an eye to how they will be tested, and disputes are litigated with a full understanding of how the underlying transaction was built. Where a matter calls for transactional structuring, diligence, or regulatory work rather than litigation, the firm’s Cross-Border Transactions practice covers that ground.