Partner and Former State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger Speaks at Conference on Enforcement of Foreign Judgments

WASHINGTON, DC, March 14, 2012 -- Arnold & Porter partner and former State Department Legal Adviser John B. Bellinger III delivered the keynote address on March 13 at the Berkeley Journal of International Law's 2012 Riesenfeld Symposium on Recognition of Foreign Judgments on the campus of UC Berkeley School of Law. Mr. Bellinger, a partner in the firm's international and national security practices in Washington, DC, advises sovereign governments and US and foreign companies on a variety of international law and US national security law issues. His address focused on the advantages of a uniform federal law to govern recognition of foreign judgments in the United States. He also discussed the prospects for ratification of the Hague Choice of Court Agreements Convention, a multilateral treaty that he signed on behalf of the United States in January, 2009. The Hague Convention requires that judgments rendered by a court chosen by parties to a commercial contract be recognized and enforced in the courts of other parties to the Convention.

After the keynote address, Maria Chedid, a senior counsel in the firm's San Francisco office, and head of the firm's West Coast international arbitration and litigation practice, moderated a Symposium panel entitled: "Novel Enforcement Issues in the Internet Age." The panel discussed strategies for companies and individuals who conduct business and engage in Internet speech across the globe, thereby subjecting themselves to regulation, litigation, and the potential of adverse judgments in foreign jurisdictions.