Bringing home Americans detained overseas, including U.S. journalists, is no small feat.

Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr senior international counsel Robert Kimmitt and Covington & Burling senior of counsel Stephen Rademaker are acutely aware of what takes place behind the scenes. Both have worked on behalf of several individuals detained overseas, most recently playing a part in the prisoner swap, between the U.S. and Russia this past August, which saw Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, and 14 other individuals released from Russian custody.

For their work, they are finalists for The American Lawyer's 2024 Attorney of the Year honor.

Kimmitt, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany, was brought in by Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal, last March to help secure Gershkovich's release.

"We've been fortunate, probably uniquely, to work quite a number of these cases from beginning to end. We think we have a pretty good playbook. Again, I'd like to leave that playbook on the shelf for the rest of my life, but if called upon, we'd be ready to respond," said Kimmitt.

Kimmitt has worked on behalf of a number of individuals detained abroad, who have since been released, including conservationist Morad Tahbaz, former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed and journalist Maziar Bahari.

"My career has been a mix of hard work and serendipity. All I can control is the hard work, and during my time in government, I was involved in various hostage release matters going all the way back to the Algiers Accords, which got U.S. government employees out of the embassy in Tehran in early 1981," said Kimmitt. "I didn't expect hostage work to become as big a part of my private practice as it has become. That's where the serendipity kicks in, and that is, in 2009, shortly after I returned to the firm, we were engaged by our existing client, the Washington Post, to help on the Maziar Bahari case."

Rademaker also played a part in the prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia, working pro-bono with U.S.-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty to help secure Kurmasheva's release.

"We worked hard to raise the profile of her case and cultivate champions in U.S. Congress, and just make sure that the State Department couldn't forget about her," said Rademaker. "It was clear not every American was going to get out, and not every American did get out, and our job was to make sure she was among those who got out."

Recently, Rademaker got the chance to meet Kurmasheva for the first time after working for nearly a year to free her.

"It was only after she was released that I finally got to meet her, and that was a real pleasure. She came to our firm with her husband, and we had a nice celebration," said Rademaker.

Rademaker has also worked on behalf of Princeton University graduate student Xiyue Wang, who was released from Iranian prison in 2019 after more than three years behind bars.

While, Rademaker and Kimmitt have handled a number of cases for Americans detained abroad, they both emphasized its work that they don't hope to have to do.

"This is one of those practice areas where you hope you never get that call again," said Kimmitt.