Benjamin Cooper is an experienced civil lawyer who represents institutional and individual clients in complex commercial litigation and investigations. Mr. Cooper has experience in all stages of federal and state litigation, including matters involving consumer class action litigation, commercial contracts, shareholder litigation, bankruptcy, and criminal law.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Cooper practiced at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, focusing on commercial litigation and commercial arbitration. He was an Alexander Fellow for the Honorable Nicholas G. Garaufis of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Timothy de Swardt is admitted as a barrister in England and the BVI and as an attorney in California. He regularly represents high-value clients in enforcing international judgments and recovering offshore assets, often in cases arising from misappropriation, fraud and the proceeds of crime. Mr. de Swardt also handles cross-border insolvency cases and trusts and estates disputes.

Mr. de Swardt regularly appears in high-stakes matters in the BVI and England, including in claims arising from the insolvencies of China Properties Group Limited and Luckin Coffee Inc., misfeasance claims by the liquidators of Barrington Capital Group against its former director, enforcing a judgment against the founder of Spackman Entertainment Group, and multiple arbitration award enforcement actions, including an action to enforce a US $1.2 billion arbitral award against Tata Sons Ltd. on behalf of NTT DoCoMo Inc.

Through his global asset recovery practice, Mr. de Swardt has worked extensively with local counsel in foreign jurisdictions such as Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, the Cayman Islands, the Cook Islands, Cyprus, Dubai, Liechtenstein, Nevis, New Zealand, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States. 

Who’s Who Legal has ranked Mr. de Swardt as a leading asset recovery lawyer, commenting that he “enjoys the praise of peers on the international stage and is known for his proficiency-enforcing foreign judgments and assisting in the recovery of offshore assets."

Before joining Kobre & Kim in the BVI, Mr. de Swardt practiced at the Chambers of William Clegg KC, 2 Bedford Row, in London.

Geoffrey J. Derrick is a former federal public defender who uses his investigatory experience to design and execute strategies in cross-border disputes involving monetization and demonetization of claims, judgments and arbitral awards. He has extensive experience working on international arbitration and judgment-enforcement matters involving fraud and misconduct. Most recently, he coordinated global enforcement campaigns for US$ nine figures of judgment debt in various jurisdictions worldwide, including India, Greater China and U.S. state and federal courts.

Mr. Derrick regularly litigates claims both against and on behalf of governments or state-owned enterprises in Washington, D.C. federal courts, where he served as a law clerk.  He is also experienced at developing reputation management strategies for debtors and creditors aimed at mitigating business and reputational risks associated with international claims, judgments and arbitral awards.

Mr. Derrick also maintains an active pro bono practice combatting wrongful convictions. As a public defender, he helped exonerate three clients who spent a collective 59 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. More recently, he helped secure approximately US $1 million for a Maryland exoneree in the first award of such compensation in decades.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Derrick practiced at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP in Washington DC, where he litigated complex employment and consumer class actions. Before that, he clerked for the Honorable Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the Honorable Catharine F. Easterly of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Mr. Derrick also has significant courtroom experience as a former state and federal public defender.

Mathew Elder focuses his practice on high-stakes commercial disputes and trials, often arising from significant market disruptions, contested transactions or other special situations. These disputes often involve complex financial instruments, as well as M&A, joint venture and cross-border transactions, and Mr. Elder often provides advice to asset managers, financial institutions and other lenders and investors. Mr. Elder also has experience in white-collar investigations and antitrust.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Elder practiced at Selendy Gay PLLC, focusing on commercial disputes, and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP. He clerked for the Honorable Andromache Karakatsanis of the Supreme Court of Canada from 2020 to 2021.

Michael C. Fasano is an experienced litigator representing ultra-high-net-worth individuals, high-value closely held companies and other corporate clients in white-collar criminal and regulatory defense and other government enforcement matters involving allegations of fraud and other misconduct. He also advises clients in matters involving high-value, cross-border commercial and corporate disputes.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Fasano founded and managed Fasano Law Firm, PLLC, an award-winning boutique litigation and advisory firm. 

Jessica Fender is an experienced trial lawyer who provides institutional clients, executives, and high-net-worth individuals with strategic advice on high-stakes international government investigations and enforcement actions, as well as intellectual property litigation. Ms. Fender has extensive experience working with federal and international senior law enforcement officials, prosecutors, intelligence agencies and government departments.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Ms. Fender spent over a decade as a federal prosecutor, most recently in the Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), where she handled complex investigations related to international and domestic terrorism, sanctions and export control violations, and counter-threat financing. While at the National Security Division, Ms. Fender also served as the DOJ’s Liaison to the Joint Special Operations Command, Department of Defense.

Prior to her time with the National Security Division, Ms. Fender served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. There, she handled notable cases across units responsible for prosecuting National Security and International Narcotrafficking, Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises, and Violent and Organized Crime. She conducted numerous criminal jury trials, and briefed and argued matters before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

While serving in the DOJ, Ms. Fender volunteered her time as an Adjunct Professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she taught the Federal Criminal Prosecution Field Clinic.

Before joining the DOJ, Ms. Fender—a registered patent attorney with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office—was an associate at Jones Day and at Schiff Hardin LLP (now ArentFox Schiff), where she focused on internal investigations and intellectual property litigation. She clerked for the Honorable Joan Gottschall of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and for the Honorable Sharon Prost of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Victoria R. Fordin is an experienced trial lawyer who represents institutional and individual clients in complex commercial litigation, with a focus on white-collar crime, antitrust, and government investigations. Ms. Fordin has extensive experience in all phases of litigation, including commencing suit, discovery, motion practice, depositions and trial.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Ms. Fordin represented high-net-worth clients in commercial litigation and family law disputes at a boutique litigation firm.  Before that, she practiced at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, where she focused on white-collar crime and antitrust litigation.

Martine Forneret represents clients in complex civil litigation involving white-collar criminal defense and regulatory investigations. Ms. Forneret has experience in handling all aspects of investigations from various U.S. regulatory and government bodies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Ms. Forneret practiced at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where she focused on regulatory action and civil litigation.

Ana Frischtak focuses her practice on cross-border disputes involving the U.S. and Latin American jurisdictions. She has extensive experience representing multinational companies and their executives in high-stakes cross-border government enforcement defense matters, particularly those related to bribery, corruption and securities fraud. Ms. Frischtak also deals with complex and multi-jurisdictional insolvency matters.

Ms. Frischtak has experience in matters involving bribery; corruption and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA); antitrust law; securities fraud; and other alleged misconduct with a nexus to Brazil and Latin America. She also has experience in disputes involving investor-state arbitration and international trade, as well as investigations brought by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Ms. Frischtak practiced at Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP as special counsel. She also practiced at Debevoise & Plimpton, LLP, where she focused on white-collar criminal defense, internal investigations and international arbitrations. She clerked for the Honorable Garland E. Burrell Jr., Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of California.

Sebastian Gollins is an English barrister and Cayman Islands attorney representing institutional and private clients – including ultra-high-net-worth individuals – in high-value, cross-border disputes, typically with connection to one or more offshore jurisdictions. He has experience advising clients in relation to claims arising out of international commercial disputes, including partnership, investment funds, insolvency and trusts. His cases often involve serious allegations of fraud and misconduct.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Gollins practiced at the self-employed commercial and chancery bar at leading regional set, St Johns Buildings.

Marcus Green advises clients on judgment enforcement, international asset investigations and offshore recovery and related debtor-creditor litigation. He helps clients realize value from court judgments and arbitration awards in distressed circumstances, including where debtors have undertaken complex asset protection structuring and, in investor-state disputes, where sovereign immunity is implicated.

Mr. Green develops and implements comprehensive global asset-tracing and recovery plans on behalf of corporate, individual and government clients. These campaigns often involve coordinated investigations and litigation throughout the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Asia.

Mr. Green regularly consults with litigants and their trial teams at all phases of disputes to evaluate the risk-adjusted recovery outlook or settlement value for disputed claims, awards and judgments. He also advises parties who may wish to buy or sell an interest in a claim, judgment or award or explore third-party risk-sharing or funding arrangements.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Green practiced with Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.

Mark Griffiths is an experienced commercial litigator who focuses his practice on cross-border insolvency disputes, particularly those involving fraud and resulting corporate investigations and asset recovery. Mr. Griffiths acts on behalf of a range of stakeholders, including financial institutions, funds, accounting firms, agents and market intermediaries, corporate executives, and high-net-worth individuals, in contentious debtor- and creditor-led assignments.

He has extensive experience conducting investigations in connection with debt recovery, wind-up proceedings, assignment of claims and retention of title (ROT) disputes.

Legal 500 has recognized Mr. Griffiths as a “deep thinker” who is “adept at converting aspirations into a legally-robust plan.” In addition to insolvency-related disputes, he advises in arbitrations and litigations concerning shareholder claims, fund-related claims, product liability and competition, among others.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Griffiths practiced at Mourant Ozannes. Earlier in his career, he worked at Orrick, where he co-founded the firm’s London insolvency and restructuring practice.

Ilona Groark is a registered foreign lawyer in Hong Kong. She is also admitted as an attorney in the Cayman Islands, a legal practitioner in BVI, and a solicitor-advocate in England. She advises clients in complex, ultra-high-value cross-border disputes, typically with a Caribbean nexus, and invariably in circumstances where there are allegations of fraud or misconduct and a need to safeguard or recover assets across multiple jurisdictions.

Ms. Groark acts for and against large international corporations, institutional investors, general partners, investment managers, court-appointed officeholders, trustees and other financial professionals. She has extensive experience in obtaining time-sensitive freezing injunctions and deploying aggressive on- and offshore discovery strategies in support of domestic and foreign-proceedings. 

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Ms. Groark practiced at Herbert Smith Freehills LLP and Ogier, where her clients included the administrators of Nortel’s EMEA estate, the Royal Bank of Scotland and its former directors, and the Tajik State Unitary Enterprise, Tajik Aluminum Company.

Lydia L. Halpern represents clients in complex commercial litigation involving white-collar criminal defense, arbitration and internal and regulatory investigations. Ms. Halpern has experience across various industries, including banking and financial services, mining, oil and gas.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Ms. Halpern practiced at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, where she focused on international arbitration and commercial litigation. She clerked for the Honorable William H. Walls of the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

John Han is an accomplished litigator and advocate who helps clients achieve business objectives in Greater China, Asia, the United States, and offshore jurisdictions, including the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands. Mr. Han has acted as lead counsel in a wide range of cross-border matters involving the monetization of bonds, loans, judgments, and awards exceeding billions of U.S. dollars on behalf of distressed debt funds, institutional investors, states, state-owned enterprises, and multinational corporations.

He regularly leads large-scale cross-border matters to monetize substantial defaulted offshore bonds, guarantees, and loans where assets are held through complex offshore structures, trusts, and foundations. Mr. Han also represents clients in matters involving simultaneous strategies in multiple jurisdictions, including Singapore, Korea, Japan, China, India, the Channel Islands, England and Wales, offshore jurisdictions, jurisdictions in Latin America, and U.S. federal and state courts.

He has been cited on topics involving cross-border bond and loan monetization by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Reuters, Bloomberg, Global Restructuring Review, and Global Arbitration Review. Mr. Han is admitted as a Solicitor Advocate in Hong Kong and admitted to the courts of the Dubai International Financial Centre, the Astana International Financial Centre Court, and in the United States.

Stephen Hayes is an English-qualified solicitor highly experienced in financial products and services litigation, joint venture and partnership disputes, and trust and estate litigation. He regularly represents clients in the financial services industry in shareholder and corporate governance disputes often involving insolvency issues. In addition, Mr. Hayes is experienced in the resolution of disputes through arbitration and mediation.

Prior to joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Hayes practiced at Fladgate LLP in London, where he focused on commercial disputes, professional negligence, and contentious trusts.

Alaina Heine focuses her practice on high-stakes corporate restructuring, distressed debt and insolvency related disputes on behalf of both creditors and debtors, representing public and private companies, ad hoc and official committees, shareholder groups, hedge funds and private equity firms. She has experience in chapter 11 restructurings, out-of-court workouts, chapter 15 restructurings, chapter 7 liquidations, debtor-in-possession financings, settlement negotiations and section 363 sales.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Ms. Heine practiced at Milbank LLP, focusing on distressed debt and corporate restructuring.

Hashem Hijjawi represents high-net-worth individuals, institutional clients and their executives to develop cross-border litigation and reputation management strategies. His practice aims at mitigating business and reputational risks involving clients’ global business interests with a nexus in the Middle East, where he deploys his deep understanding of the region and his native Arabic language.

Mr. Hijjawi advises on a range of issues relating to defamation, misuse of private information, breach of confidence, blackmail and harassment. He also has significant experience with commercial disputes under the ICSID, ICC and LCIA arbitration rules, and has represented clients before the English High Court and Court of Appeal in London.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Hijjawi practiced at Clyde & Co LLP and Carter-Ruck, where he focused on commercial litigation and reputation, media and privacy disputes.

effrey Ho represents corporations, funds and other institutional clients in complex cross-border disputes and litigation with a nexus to the Asia Pacific region, often involving fraud and misconduct. He dilutes and defends against multi-million dollar claims and allegations of fraud on behalf of global clients and coordinates government investigations to defend client assets and interests. 

Mr. Ho also has significant experience in shareholder and other corporate disputes, enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards, as well as proceedings related to offshore liquidation, winding up and other insolvency litigation and disputes.

Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. Ho practiced at King & Wood Mallesons and Dentons Hong Kong, where he focused on cross-border litigation and regulatory investigations.

Paul Hughes focuses on advising international clients on high-profile disputes, in which he deploys creative strategies designed to monetize or dilute cross-border claims. He has extensive experience enforcing judgments and arbitral awards in matters involving global asset recovery, with particular focus on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the wider Middle East region and the United Kingdom.

A leading practitioner in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and English Courts, Mr. Hughes has further extensive experience in fraud investigations, contentious shareholder disputes, and banking litigation. He is also regularly engaged in private client disputes for UHNWIs and has served as litigation counsel in high-value multi-jurisdictional bankruptcy matters.

Mr. Hughes has been practising in the UAE for over twelve years and has been described by Chambers & Partners as having solutions that are “intricately intertwined with business considerations, effectively harmonizing the legal strategies with [a client’s] overarching commercial goals.” He is also recognized by Legal 500 as a "superb legal strategist who has a strong grasp of the legal and commercial drivers in any case" and is "relentless in pursuing the interests of his client in advancing their case," as well as "an exceptional litigator" who is "incredibly hard-working, knows how to lead and delegate where necessary and is measured, but aggressive where appropriate."