Our practice involves high-stakes disputes. This means cases where there are substantial dollars at issue, significant political and reputational risk for the litigants, or precedent-setting legal issues – and often all three.
Below is a sample of the cases we are currently litigating.
Lawsuit against Milwaukee Tool over forced labor
Xu Lun v. Milwaukee Electric Tool Corp. and Techtronic Industries Company Limited (E.D. Wis.)
We filed a lawsuit on behalf of a former Chinese political prisoner who was forced to make work gloves for Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation while imprisoned. The lawsuit alleges that Milwaukee Tool and its parent company, Techtronic Industries, knowingly benefited from the use of forced labor, violating U.S. laws against human trafficking and forced labor. The complaint seeks damages for our client, as well as an injunction to prevent further use of such labor practices. The lawsuit has been covered by The Wall Street Journal, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and other places.
Antitrust class action alleging collusion by major shale oil producers
In re Shale Oil Antitrust Litigation (D. N. M.)
Representing the City of Baltimore in an antitrust class action, we allege that several major producers of shale oil colluded to restrict the production of crude oil so as to drive up its price and the price of petroleum products. The lawsuit has been covered by Reuters and Bloomberg Law.
Class action against Amazon's unfair business practices
Tafari Mbadiwe and Rachel Miller v. Amazon, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.)
Say you have a clothing company and want to do online sales on both your own website and on Amazon. Amazon's fees are so high that your own website's price for a product could be significantly lower than the price on Amazon, and you could still make the same profit. But for years Amazon prohibited sellers from setting that lower price. We allege that this practice violated the antitrust laws and caused consumers to pay higher prices. We recently filed a class action in federal court on behalf of such consumers.
Antitrust class action against Wall Street banks
In re Credit Default Swaps Auctions Litigation (D. N. M.)
We allege that 10 Wall Street banks created, and then manipulated, the auction process used in the valuation of certain financial instruments, causing artificial prices for the banks' own benefit. On behalf of the New Mexico Attorney General's Office and multiple public institutional investors, we filed a federal class action against the banks.
WeChat users and NGO sue Tencent for censorship
Citizen Power Initiatives for China, et al. v. Tencent America LLC, et al. (Cal. Super. Ct.)
Can it really be that, if you want to interact online with Chinese people in California—that is, if you want to use WeChat in California—you have to subject yourself to the censorship and surveillance of the Chinese Communist Party? And should you really be at risk of losing your business if you don’t comply? Because that is what we allege is happening right now, every day, including to our clients. We don’t think that’s right, fair, just, or lawful. So we sued Tencent to force them to stop being so complicit with the CCP, at least in California. Tencent tried to get the case moved out of California’s court system, and into private arbitration, but we were able to persuade the court to reject that effort. The case went up on appeal on that issue, and it now continues in the trial court.
Pursuing an international investment scam
Mari Kusada, et al. v. Jialin Niu, et al. (Wash. Super. Ct.)
We represent a group of investors seeking tens of millions of dollars in a fraud suit against a pair of scammers who we allege falsely claimed to have been financial experts who were creating China's first real estate investment trust, but in reality were running a Ponzi-like scheme while siphoning investor money into their own pockets. The case is currently on appeal.
Chinese dissidents claim breach of trust over misused fund
He Depu et al v. Oath Holdings (formerly, Yahoo! Inc.), et al. (D.D.C.)
To settle a controversy over its complicity in the jailing of a journalist by the Chinese government, Yahoo in 2007 created a $17.3 million charitable trust fund for imprisoned dissidents. But extreme mismanagement by both Yahoo and the nonprofit it worked with led to the money being frittered away, with only about 5% ever being spent on helping the trust's intended beneficiaries. We sued Yahoo and the nonprofit in federal court to make them pay for their gross breaches of trust, and to restore and replenish the fund so that the trust's original mission of helping imprisoned dissidents can finally be carried out in a meaningful way. The defendants have fought tooth and nail to escape accountability, but we won an appeal, and then we won a trial on the issue of whether Yahoo intended to create a trust. We are now preparing for a trial on the remaining issues. Our work in this case was covered by the MIT Technology Review.
Assault victim seeks justice from Chinese government
Jie Qiao v. People’s Republic of China (D.D.C.)
Qiao Jie has been fighting judicial corruption in China for years after suffering major business losses because of such corruption. She eventually moved to the U.S., where she continued her activism in the streets of Washington, DC. But then thugs from the Chinese embassy assaulted her on U.S. soil, causing life-altering injuries that have left her wheelchair bound. On her behalf, we filed a federal lawsuit against the Chinese government directly, under an exception to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
