During more than forty years practicing law, Mr. Wilner has developed experience in a number of areas:

• Litigation. Mr. Wilner has been lead counsel before U.S. district and appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court in a number of major cases 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 for Guantanamo detainees before the U.S. Supreme Court in Rasul v. Bush, decided in June 2004, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Guantanamo detainees have the right to habeas corpus, and in Boumediene v. Bush, decided in June, 2008, in which the Supreme Court held that the detainees’ right to habeas corpus is protected by the U.S. Constitution. Also counsel of record in Al Odah v. United Stateswhich established the Guantanamo detainees’ right to counsel.
• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries in antitrust actions brought in the United States.
• The Government of Kuwait in several major litigations.
• The Government of Kazakhstan in several major litigations and arbitrations.
• Petróleos de Venezuela, the national oil company of Venezuela, in several major litigations and arbitrations, and 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 and allowing the dismantling of the nuclear weapons in Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.

Awards & Accolades

• 2004 Community Service Award by the International Law Section of the District of Columbia Bar
• 2007 Frederick Douglas Human Rights Award by the Southern Center for Human Rights
• 2008 William J. Butler Human Rights Award by the Urban Morgan Institute for Human Rights of the University of Cincinnati College of Law
• 2013 Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award by T’Ruah, the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights