The Firm acts as international defense counsel for corporate and individual
interests facing due process violations and other forms of governmental attack designed
to suppress perceived political or economic opposition through abuse of official power.
Canadian Lawyer Magazine has described Robert Amsterdam as “one of the few lawyers in the world [effective at] taking on the state when the state starts acting like a criminal.”
In today’s Internet Age, instrumentalized judicial systems in rule-of-law-challenged
environments are able to destroy political and business reputations long before legal
vindication is possible. The Firm’s approach in such settings is to tailor strategies for each
unique situation, drawing from a complete spectrum of potential countervailing measures
that include legal, political and media-based components.
Illustrative matters include:
• Representation of former Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, against
politically motivated charges by Thai government officials.
• Representation of Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former Chairman of
Yukos Oil Company’s management entity, during illegal show trials prosecuted by the
Vladimir Putin government.
• Representation of the former President of Zambia and members of his family, subjected
to politically motivated charges by the Michael Sata government.
• Representation of a Venezuelan businessman, member of the political opposition,
arbitrarily detained by the Hugo Chávez government, now a U.S. political asylee.