Our Litigators of the Week are Dennis Hranitzky, John Bash and Alex Loomis of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan who recently secured a more than $300 million win at the Second Circuit for holders of bonds issued by Argentina. 

The Second Circuit last week upheld a district court decision that rejected Argentina's argument that funds held by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York were protected by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally protects the property of foreign sovereigns from attachment. The court agreed that those funds fell under an exception to the immunity provided by FSIA because the country had used them for "commercial activity"—namely paying off other debt holders to "exchange old debt for new, as any non-sovereign entity might do."