Practice

Mr . Wilner is head of the International Trade and Government Relations Practice. During more than 30 years practicing law, Mr. Wilner has developed expertise in a number of areas:

• Litigation.  Mr. Wilner has been lead counsel in a number of major cases before U.S. district and appellate courts around the country involving constitutional, antitrust, securities, sovereign immunity, and other issues. He has also been responsible for developing the overall litigation strategy and managing the litigation work of other law firms on behalf of major clients.
• Government Policy and Regulation.  Mr. Wilner has represented major private corporations and governments and governmental entities (including the governments of Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Mexico, Venezuela, and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries), managing the political aspects of their problems before the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Executive Branch. He also handles a variety of regulatory issues in Washington, D.C. affecting international business, including Exon-Florio reviews of transnational mergers and acquisitions.
• International Trade.  Mr. Wilner has acted as lead counsel in more than 40 international trade proceedings before the trade tribunals of the United States (including the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the International Trade Commission, the Department of Commerce and the Department of State), the World Trade Organization and the European Commission. He has pioneered the use of agreements as a means to resolve trade disputes.

• Counsel of record to Guantanamo detainees in Rasul v. Bush, decided in June 2004, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the detainees have the right to habeas corpus, and counsel of record in Boumediene v. Bush, decided in June, 2008, in which the Supreme Court held that the Guantanamo detainees’ right to habeas corpus is protected by the U.S. Constitution
• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in antitrust actions brought in the United States
• Petróleos de Venezuela in several major litigations and arbitrations
• The Government of Venezuela in the largest antidumping case ever filed in the United States against imports of oil
• The Government of Mexico in the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• The Government of Kazakhstan in connection with trade issues, including the negotiation of an agreement regulating trade in uranium between the former Soviet Union and the United States