Mark N. Bravin

Partner

Mark N. Bravin is a partner in Morgan Lewis's Litigation Practice, where he heads the International Arbitration Practice and focuses on transnational litigation and commercial arbitration matters. He concentrates on disputes between private parties and sovereign governments before U.S. courts and international arbitral tribunals. He also has a substantial background in international regulatory compliance and enforcement matters and administrative law in the areas of customs, export controls, embargoes, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Mr. Bravin is currently representing the Government of Romania in an investment dispute under the Romania-Greece bilateral investment treaty, before the World Bank's International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Romania obtained a provisional measures decision blocking the investor's assets pending the completion of the case, a novel result in investor-state arbitration. He represented the State Property Fund of Ukraine in an action addressing whether a foreign arbitral award may be enforced under the New York Convention even where the parties and the underlying arbitral dispute have no connection with the United States, and where the defendant has no property in the United States. TMR Energy Ltd. v. State Property Fund of Ukraine, 411 F.3d 296 (DC Cir. 2005)

Mr. Bravin has presented numerous arbitral claims on behalf of American claimants at the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague, involving expropriations of investments and contract disputes following the Iranian Revolution. One such claim, on behalf of McKesson Corporation, resulted in an arbitral award in 1984, which has been actively litigated since that time. The case involves the jurisdiction of U.S. courts to decide a claim against an expropriating state arising under customary international law, a bilateral treaty with investment protection provisions, and domestic law in the investor's state as well as of the expropriating state; and the availability of compound prejudgment interest and attorneys' fee awards in U.S. cases arising under international law. Following a new trial in 2007, McKesson won a judgment for damages. Iran appealed and won a remand. The matter is currently being litigated in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on the issues of Iranian law, act of state, and customary international law. A separate award of McKesson's attorney's fees is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

His other international arbitration cases have included disputes about long-term supply contracts, oil field concessions, power projects, banking, engineering, shipping, distributorships and joint ventures, procurement and construction contracts, licensing agreements, and services agreements. Mr. Bravin has worked on numerous matters involving Eastern Europe and Latin America and is fluent in Spanish.

Mr. Bravin's publications and speeches in the field of international dispute resolution include the following topics: "Planning For and Successfully Resolving International Disputes," "Enforcing International Arbitral Awards in the United States," "Ten Things That Can Go Wrong With An International Arbitration and What To Do To Fix Them," "Suing Foreign Governments in United States Courts: The U.S. Sovereign Immunities Act in Practice," "Suing Private Companies or Individuals from Mexico in United States Courts," and "Introduction to the Legal System of the United States." He is also an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law School, where he teaches Advanced International Commercial Arbitration.

Mr. Bravin is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia.