An American client of ours, North American Foreign Trading Corporation, enforced an arbitration decision in China against a Chinese party. As a member of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, commonly known as the New York Convention, Chinese courts are obligated to enforce foreign arbitral decisions. The Chinese defendant appeared and lost to our client in the New York arbitration, and then the defendant resisted the decision's enforcement in China.

After numerous appeals and other judicial proceedings—during which the judges from the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court directly responsible for this case were replaced from their positions—our client was ultimately able to attach assets of the defendant company. We were able to turn the arbitration award into a judgment by a Chinese court that, in turn, enforced the judgment by attaching publicly traded shares owned by the defendant.

With this attachment, our client was able to settle for a substantial amount in excess of USD 11 million.