CASE STUDY: LEGAL SERVICES
- GOVERNMENT RELATIONS
- STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS
- LITIGATION SUPPORT
SITUATION:
We were contacted by several law firms representing the families and estates of American terror victims in civil suits against the Palestine Liberation Organization/Palestinian Authority (PLO/PA). On behalf of their clients, the firms had successfully attached over $1,000,000,000 of assets of the PLO/PA under US control. The United States Secretary of State, however, had personally promised the PLO/PA that the Executive Branch would intervene in the cases on the basis of “national interests.” Despite numerous requests by the clients, the State Department had refused to even meet with these American victims of terror to hear their side. The courts had given the PLO/PA a certain number of days within which to produce evidence of such intervention.
We were brought in on the last day – the very day the White House was already finalizing its letter of intervention to the judges at the Secretary of State's behest.
RESOLUTION:
We immediately took our clients' case to very high levels of the White House and achieved a delay in issuing the letter to the courts and, on that basis, worked with counsel to get an extension from the courts. During that extension, we lobbied the White House and Congress and brought media and public scrutiny to bear on the issue, and achieved a total reversal of the State Department’s commitment. As a result, the Administration did not intervene and the lawsuits proceeded.
In February 2015, our clients were awarded $655,500,000 against the PLO/PA.
We were contacted by several law firms representing the families and estates of American terror victims in civil suits against the Palestine Liberation Organization/Palestinian Authority (PLO/PA). On behalf of their clients, the firms had successfully attached over $1,000,000,000 of assets of the PLO/PA under US control. The United States Secretary of State, however, had personally promised the PLO/PA that the Executive Branch would intervene in the cases on the basis of “national interests.” Despite numerous requests by the clients, the State Department had refused to even meet with these American victims of terror to hear their side. The courts had given the PLO/PA a certain number of days within which to produce evidence of such intervention.
We were brought in on the last day – the very day the White House was already finalizing its letter of intervention to the judges at the Secretary of State's behest.
RESOLUTION:
We immediately took our clients' case to very high levels of the White House and achieved a delay in issuing the letter to the courts and, on that basis, worked with counsel to get an extension from the courts. During that extension, we lobbied the White House and Congress and brought media and public scrutiny to bear on the issue, and achieved a total reversal of the State Department’s commitment. As a result, the Administration did not intervene and the lawsuits proceeded.
In February 2015, our clients were awarded $655,500,000 against the PLO/PA.