Counsel and Law Firm – Successful Appeal of Contempt of Court Ruling

Secured a favorable ruling from the Second Circuit on behalf of attorneys and their law firm in their appeal of a district court’s ruling holding them in contempt of court and sanctioning them for the alleged failure of their clients, the Republic of Iraq and Iraq's Ministry of Industry, to comply with a post-judgment discovery order. Finding that our clients had been given insufficient notice of the charges, and that the district court exceeded the bounds of its discretion when, under the circumstances, it proceeded to sua sponte find the attorney appellants in contempt, the Second Circuit vacated the order of contempt against our clients.  In vacating the contempt finding, the Second Circuit also ruled that the attorneys had appellate jurisdiction even after the underlying case against their clients had settled and the judgment satisfied, a previously open question of law in this Circuit.