Not many lawyers can put "seized an Argentinian military frigate" on their resume, but for Dennis Hranitzky, it's one example of how far he's willing to go in litigating—and collecting—against sovereign states.

On Tuesday, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan announced that Hranitzky joined the firm as head of its sovereign litigation practice. He was previously a partner at Dechert, where he co-headed the firm's international and insolvency litigation group. Quinn Emanuel founder John B. Quinn called him the "best of the best for multinational litigation in sovereign matters."

The frigate seizure was on behalf of Hranitzky's hedge fund client NML Capital, which was trying to enforce a $284 million judgment against Argentina that was entered in the Southern District of New York 

 In 2012, Argentina's ARA Libertad was docked in Ghana on an official visit when NML filed a Statement of Claim in Ghana court seeking to obtain satisfaction of the New York judgment debt. 

Ghana officials agreed to detain the warship—Hranitzky was personally on hand to board it. But Argentina prevailed before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which ordered Ghana to "forthwith and unconditionally release the frigate." The Supreme Court of Ghana went on to rule that detaining the vessel was "fundamentally and patently wrong."

Still. Wow. One thing is clear: Don't mess with Hranitzky.

For more, see Dechert's Hranitzky Jumps to Quinn Emanuel to Launch Sovereign Disputes Group