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A quArterly newsletter

improving the ethiopiAn judicial process In October 2008, a team of Shearman & Sterling

attorneys presented a report to the US State Department

and the Ethiopian government outlining findings

and recommendations from a two-year neutral trial

observation conducted by Lawyers Without Borders (LWOB). The trial in question involved

more than 130 defendants, most of whom were members of the opposition party in the country,

the Coalition for a United Democracy (CUD). Following the 2005 election in Ethiopia,

members of the CUD had accused the ruling party, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary

Democratic Front (EPRDF), of orchestrating significant voting irregularities. Violence erupted

during several protests and CUD party members, along with others, were imprisoned and

charged with crimes including conspiracy to overthrow the government, treason, and, initially,

attempted genocide.

“We had previously received requests regarding this trial from an

Ethiopian lawyer and members of the Ethiopian diaspora,” explains LWOB

founder and director Christina Storm. “When a request came to us, through

Shearman & Sterling, from an NGO in Washington State, we decided we

had received enough requests from different entities with disparate interests

that we should try to fashion a response.”

Members of the Shearman & Sterling team were present at the hearings

in Addis Ababa from April 2006 through the conclusion of the trial in

December 2007, and others began working on the report as the trial pro-

gressed. Appendices to the report were memoranda of law on the significant

issues that arose during the trial, ranging from evidentiary rulings to human

rights of free speech and assembly. Now that the report has been delivered,

the next step is to engage the Ethiopian government in a conversation to

identify ways in which the Ethiopian judicial process might be improved.

continued on page 3

improving the ethiopian judicial process 1

preserving the integrity of u.s. elections 2

not taking “no” for an answer 4

international courts in rwanda 6

nations in transition: electoral roadmap 7

uncovering mortgage fraud 8

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Associate Andrew giddings

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On November 4, 2008, US voters came out in record numbers for what proved to be an historic presidential

election. More than 50 Shearman & Sterling lawyers across the country volunteered to ensure the integrity

of the process. The firm coordinated its pro bono efforts with three nonpartisan organizations: the Asian

American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF), the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

(LCCRUL), and Native Vote, a nonpartisan group advocating for Native Americans.

a “precious learning experience” The AALDEF enlisted the help of volunteers to cover 200 polling locations in 11 states, with Shearman & Sterling lawyers providing support in Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania. Volunteers were instructed to be sure Asian-language ballots, interpreters, signs, and voting materials were provided, that voter identification requirements were implemented in a non-discrimina-tory manner, and that provisional ballots were offered to qualified voters whose names were not on voter lists.

Associates Nan-I Chen and Jason Gao were at the polls in Philadelphia. Chen says he was “proud and excited” to participate. “We had the chance to interact personally with multicultural voters about their experi-ences at the polls, and to assist them if they had any problems or concerns,” Chen explains. “It was a precious learning experience.”

Associate Adrienne Ali, who worked for the AALDEF in New York City, agrees. “It was one of the best experi-ences I’ve ever had,” she says. “As a non-US citizen, I don’t have the right to vote here, but as long as I’m living and working in this country, I would like to contribute to the system in some way.”

election protection with the lccrul Working with the LCCRUL, Shearman & Sterling attor-neys supported poll monitoring activities in California, Nevada, and Washington, DC. The firm also provided staff for hotlines, including a Spanish-language hotline, and for responding to voter emails.

Associate Emily Griffen was among the volunteers working in Nevada. “It was a great experience,” says Griffen. “I had the opportunity to address a few issues that came up, such as a police officer exercising inappropriate presence and a woman handing out

campaign literature within 100 feet of the polling location, which is illegal.”

The LCCRUL reports that more than 8,000 legal professionals volunteered on Election Day 2008, answering more than 80,000 hotline calls and pro-viding poll monitoring from 53 different local field command centers across the US. The LCCRUL’s Election Protection program is the nation’s largest non-partisan voter protection coalition.

protecting native american voting rightsThe National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) worked with tribes in 18 states for its Native Vote 2008 effort. Shearman & Sterling lawyers supported Native Vote activities in New Mexico and Michigan on Election Day.

Among the volunteers who participated were Michael Madeo and Ajay Chanayil, who traveled to Dowagiac, Michigan to work with members of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. Madeo says the trip was “half election protection, half field trip” as their Native Vote contact gave them a tour of the reservation including the tribal court, some new tribal housing, and land owned by the tribe. After working as poll monitors, Madeo and Chanayil watched election results as they shared a meal with about 20 tribe members.

“It was a very fulfilling end to what had already been a fulfilling day,” Madeo relates. “I’m very excited to have participated in such an important event during such an historic Election Day.”

Shearman & Sterling attorneys who participated in 2008 election protection activities include: partners Robert Treuhold and Philip Urofsky; counsel Susan Hobart, Robert LaRussa, Sharon Lippett, and Susan Reiss; associates Mikael Abye, Reni Adadevoh, Adrienne Ali, Hilary Allen, Ronni Arnold, Alyse Mindi Aruch, Paige Berges, Kevin Boon, Robert Alan Britton, Ajay Chanayil, Nan-I Chen, Emeka Chinwuba, Jiyoun Chung, Michelle Crutchfield, Schuyler Frautschi, Jason Gao, Azadeh Gowharrizi, Damien Grierson, Emily Griffen, Morgan Hector, Gloria Huang, Derek Kershaw, Michael Kieval, Ryan Knutson, Sayo Kondo, Amanda Kosonen, Rachel Kugelmass, Sylvia Lee, Daniel Litowitz, Alexa Jo Chun Yee Loo, Michael Madeo, Grissel Mercado, Gregory Milne, Brian Moon, Assaad Nasr, Elizabeth Pike, Karen Saah, Christian Sabella, Kim Simmonds, James Smith, Sean Strauss, Don Suh, Lawrence Taylor, Jonathan Jay Tompkins, Patrick Valenti, Stephen Vander Stoep, and Kalin Velev.

integrity of u.s. electionspr

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stephen vander stoep, gregory milne, susan hobart, schuyler Frautschi, michael madeo, paige Berges, nan-i chen, sayo Kondo, and gloria huang

and around the world. The team also considered inter-national standards since Ethiopia is a signatory to most major international human rights treaties, and looked closely at the history and evolution of Ethiopian law.

Beyond providing the report, Giddings believes the presence of LWOB at the trial was important. “Having an independent legal observer at a trial helps encourage those involved to exercise the best possible legal process,” he says, “and shows there is international interest in what’s happening and in the legal development of a particular country.”

gaining transnational experienceGiddings says that with the increasing importance of comparat ive and internat ional law, having the chance to work on this project was a valuable professional opportunity.

“In my regular practice, and I’m sure this is true for many other attorneys, I have a lot of clients who may be operating in multiple countries,” he says.

“So it ’s important to develop the ability to work comfortably across different legal systems. This was a great learning experience and I feel we made an important contribution.”

In all, Shearman & Sterling contributed more than 10,000 hours in support of this project under the leadership of partners James Garrity and Kenneth Laverriere, counsel George Wade, and former partner Ed Turner. Other team members who contributed sig-nificantly to the project include counsel Jeff Salinger and James Warren; associates Elizabeth Acorn, Jaclyn Barnao, Stephanie Case, Morgan Dann, Irina Dragulev, Elodie Dulac, Diana Goff, Christopher Halfnight, Grace Harbour, Paula Howell, Henry Nguyen, Tom Rosen, Swan Sallmard, James Smith, Brian Wheeler, and Brenda Zelin; and legal assistants Tal Machnes, Sin-Lei Ng, Karen Prosky, Michael Reid, and Daniel Schwartz.

“having an independent legal observer at a trial helps

encourage those involved to exercise the best possible

legal process.” —Associate Andrew Giddings

| 3 |

Improving the Ethiopian Judicial Process | continued from cover

details of the trialAt the trial, most of the defendants refused to defend themselves, claiming that they did not recognize the validity of the proceedings. In April 2007, the court determined there was a prima facie case against the defendants. In June, they were all found guilty and in July sentenced to var ious terms in pr ison. Shortly after sentencing, however, the majority of the defendants signed a formal letter of apology, which had been negotiated through a group of Elders (esteemed individuals in the community who acted as mediators), and were pardoned.

Among the defendants were two civil society workers who had been assisting with election monitoring and related activities. Presenting a full defense in court, they denied that they were collaborating with the CUD party in its alleged efforts to undermine the Ethiopian government. “Since the majority of the defendants refused to defend themselves, this was the only actual full defense that took place during the trial,” says Litigation associate Andrew Giddings, who was part of the Shearman & Sterling team. “Both men were attor-neys, which made it very interesting. As part of their defense they actually had CUD party leaders testify that the two were not CUD members.”

In December 2007, the two were found guilty by a 2-to-1 decision and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison each (including time already served). Both the defendants and the prosecution appealed, but ultimately agreed in March 2008 to a settlement in which the defendants signed a letter asking for forgiveness and received pardons.

working toward a stronger legal system in ethiopiaIn preparing the report, the Shearman & Sterling team conducted a comprehensive independent review of the proceedings to augment their findings from the obser-vation. In addition to complete transcripts, the team reviewed the entire video showing the demonstrations and allegedly incendiary speeches that took place in 2005, since only select clips of those events had been shown during the trial.

The Shearman & Sterling team conducted interviews with key individuals and legal scholars from Ethiopia

in All, sheArmAn & sterling contriButed more thAn 10,000 hours in support oF this project…

sheArmAn & sterling | proActive | 4

Research is a cornerstone of law. But what’s an attorney to do when asked

to find and summarize cases of a particular kind in a specific country,

only to be told that the country does not publish its cases? That’s the situ-

ation Washington, DC Litigation associate Michael Kieval faced when he

began work on behalf of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

In the summer of 2007, Shearman & Sterling was asked to assist the UNODC with a project in support of the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. The Convention includes three Protocols, one of which is the “Protocol to Suppress, Prevent and Punish the Trafficking of Persons, Especially Women and Children.” The protocol is the foremost international agreement criminalizing human trafficking. To help countries implement this protocol and to raise greater international awareness about the realities of human trafficking, the UNODC set out to create a database of documented court cases.

According to the UNODC’s Martin Fowke, one of the biggest challenges in the fight against human trafficking is a deficit of information. “While human trafficking is universally acknowledged as a terrible practice, the real response globally has been uneven, at best,” notes Fowke. “One of the reasons for that is the common belief that human trafficking is something that happens elsewhere, where people with no connection to us victimize others. In trying to spur greater will and action, you need reputable information. What better source than court records, which all countries will accept as a standard.”

The initial request from the UNODC to Shearman & Sterling was for case information from Japan, Benin, and Guatemala. Kieval expressed his interest. “I had previously worked on a pro bono project that gave me great experience working with the Israeli courts, so I was very interested in the opportunity to learn more about another legal system,” he explains. “I speak some Spanish, so I offered to work on the Guatemalan piece.”

finding cases that don’t existSince Guatemala operates under a version of Spanish civil law, which does not rely heavily on published cases, Kieval and another DC Litigation associate, Sean Arthurs (at the time a summer associate), were initially told by Guatemalan authorities that there was “no such thing” as a published case in Guatemala, let alone one involving human trafficking. They were also told that court files are sealed by default and can only be accessed by someone with a special permit or a court order. Kieval says he was skeptical and through some additional digging found that, in fact, the Guatemala Supreme Court does publish some of its decisions.

not taking “no” for an answer

michael Kieval, eleanor gonzalez, and sean Arthurs

| 5 |

After working with the Centro Nacional de Análisis y Documentación Judicial (National Center for Judicial Analysis and Documentation), Kieval and Arthurs learned they could purchase the published case reports, but various barriers continued to arise. Despite persistent efforts, it seemed as if the pair had reached a dead end.

“That’s when the amazingly talented librarians in our Washington, DC office found a legal book-seller that had a representative in Guatemala, who managed to purchase the CD-ROM and printed volumes of case reports and send them to us,” Kieval explains. The team still faced a few technical obstacles, but now that the documents were in hand, work could begin.

Although they have not yet found many human trafficking cases in Guatemala, Kieval explains that while he was waiting for access to the information there, he found some human trafficking cases from Israel to begin populating the database. “As you review the details of these cases it just affirms the effort,” he says. “Even though this is just a small piece of a much larger program, I’m pleased to have the opportunity to contribute.”

lending language skillsKieval and others continue to work on locating and reviewing cases from Guatemala as well as other countries, and he says that associates who have even modest skills in any foreign language should consider becoming involved.

“When I began this work I spoke only basic Spanish,” he says. “Sean had much better Spanish, but if you have even limited language skills you can help. You will probably surprise yourself with how much you know; plus, it’s an excellent opportunity to learn more about other legal systems.”

The UNODC’s Fowke also encourages and invites others. “Our intent is to create something that is practical and useful to a wide range of people in their day-to-day efforts working against the trafficking of persons,” he says. “Step one is to collect the information. That’s why having a firm like Shearman & Sterling working with us – with the expertise and global resources it has – is so very valuable.” To better understand the issues facing those who are trafficked, Fowke invites people to visit the UNODC website (www.unodc.org).

In addition to Kieval and Arthurs, other Shearman & Sterling team members who have contributed to the UNODC project include: associates Eyal Dror, Adam Samarillo, and Rachel Schipper; business and administra-tive attorney Rachelle Abrahami; legal assistants Tal Machnes and Sin-Lei Ng; research librarians Eleanor Gonzalez and Jill Sidford; and pro bono specialist Jorge Escobedo.

while humAn trAFFicKing is universAlly AcKnowledged As A terriBle prActice, the reAl response gloBAlly hAs Been uneven, At Best. —mArtin FowKe, unodc

sheArmAn & sterling | proActive | 6sheArmAn & sterling | proActive | 6

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Shearman & Sterling’s involvement with the

International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda (ICTR)

began in the late 1990s. The Tribunal was established by

the UN to prosecute those responsible for genocide and

other serious violations of international humanitarian

law committed in Rwanda and neighboring regions

between January 1 and December 31, 1994.

Unlike most pro bono cases, which arise following a request from a client, agency, or organization, Shearman & Sterling actively pursued the opportunity to be involved in this significant international court proceeding. What began as a small research assignment with the ICTR grew into an externship program, in which a Shearman & Sterling associate participates in the Tribunal for one month. The firm has been sending associates to Arusha, Tanzania, where the court is located, nearly every month since the Fall of 2000. Approximately 70 Shearman & Sterling attorneys from nine different offices have participated in the externship since its inception.

Stephen Penner, an associate in the Asset Management group, returned from his externship in October 2008. Penner had previously gained experi-ence working with the Rwandan legal framework and court systems during a Lawyers Without Borders project involving the property and inheritance rights of orphans, making him an ideal candidate for work with the Tribunal.

working with the prosecutor’s officeWhen he arrived in Arusha, Penner was assigned to the office of the prosecutor and assisted a team of African attorneys in drafting the closing brief in the appeal of four Rwandan government cabinet members. The officials had previously been jointly tried and convicted of committing numerous acts of genocide by the Tribunal, and each had been sentenced to life in prison. Although the court proceedings follow international law, the sentencing follows Rwandan law, in which there is no death penalty. Penner reviewed hundreds of pages of harrowing factual evidence and gripping witness testimony to produce a succinct legal argument.

“The prosecution’s central thesis – and the reason these ministers were jointly tried – was that they had

conspired to commit genocide,” explained Penner. “Proving the existence of a conspiracy is one of the most difficult tasks in criminal law. It requires that one examine the totality of the facts and make an argument that there is no possibility events could have aligned as they did had these individuals not meticulously planned their activities ahead of time.”

In building this argument, the prosecution had examined the officials’ rise to power and their engage-ment in propaganda during the early 1990s. However, during the appeal process, a bench ruling stated that, because the mandate of the court concerned acts that took place in 1994, the prosecution was not allowed to introduce any evidence that took place prior to that date. “As a result of this ruling, we had to reconsider a lot of the facts on which we had previously based our argument,” Penner recalls.

protecting human rights through international normsAlthough the final judicial ruling on the appeal is not yet known, Penner feels the signif icance of Shearman & Sterling’s involvement in the ICTR is much more far-reaching than any one case.

“I see the application of international law as a move-ment towards a more supranational system that can protect human rights through international norms rather than the idiosyncrasies of individual nation states,” says Penner. “It’s important for governments to recognize that individuals’ legal rights do not exist in a sovereign vacuum and that’s why what’s happening with the ICTR is so important. It’s bringing the rule of law to a situation that had been the complete antithesis.”

stephen penner (middle) with the shearman & sterling driver (left) and a masai warrior guard (right) at the shearman & sterling house in Arusha, tanzania

it’s importAnt For governments to recognize thAt individuAls’ legAl rights do not exist in A sovereign vAcuum… —AssociAte stephen penner

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nAtions in trAnsition: electoral roadmapAs part of an ongoing collaboration with Lawyers Without Borders (LWOB), several Shearman & Sterling

lawyers have been participating in a project to create an “electoral roadmap” for the potential transition of the

Republic of Cuba to a democratic form of government. This unique legal analysis of Cuba’s constitution and

all of its criminal and civil laws – designed to assess and recommend legal reforms to provisions that impede

free elections – will serve as a step-by-step guide for legislators, legal professionals, and citizens who aspire to a

government chosen democratically through free and fair elections.

“This is an important project in support of the rule of law,” says Stephen Hibbard, a partner involved with the roadmap. “The team has worked hard to ensure the analysis is comprehensive, practical, free of ideological bias, and respectful of Cuban history and traditions.”

The electoral roadmap project is the most recent in a series of international projects Shearman & Sterling has worked on in partnership with LWOB. The relationship began in early 2005 with LWOB’s rule of law assessment of the Liberian judicial systems. Shearman & Sterling and LWOB have since collaborated on projects in Ethiopia [see lead story], Rwanda, and Comoros.

“Shearman & Sterling lawyers bring spirit, energy, and commitment to each endeavor they work on with Lawyers Without Borders,” said Christina Storm, founder and director of LWOB, in a recent edition of Border Briefs, the LWOB newsletter. “That remarkable dedi-cation is matched at the highest levels with partners playing an active role in each and every collaboration.”

Now in its second year of a three-year timeline, the electoral roadmap project has thus far involved significant research on two dozen countries with transitioning electoral systems in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa. The data have helped form the foundation for best practices outlined in the roadmap, which provides a range of options for legal reform.

According to Hibbard, the project has showcased Shearman & Sterling’s strength as a global firm. Associates in a number of offices, most significantly London, but also New York, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, and Washington, have all contributed. These lawyers have brought to bear a range of legal and social perspectives as well as language skills in this work: assessing transitions in two dozen countries and deter-mining a set of best practices appropriate for Cuba.

Based on the accumulated knowledge on the topic, LWOB and St. Johns University School of Law are co-sponsoring a conference entitled: “Labor Rights,

Voting Rights, Human Rights: Transitions to Democracy.” The conference will be held in Rome on July 2-3, 2009, and Hibbard is scheduled to speak at the event.

The following Shearman & Sterling team members participated in the project: partners Stuart Fleischmann, James Garrity, Stephen Hibbard, Tina Patel, Antonia Stolper, Philip Urofsky; of counsel George Wade; counsel Patricia Kuhn and Susan Reiss; associates John Adams, Virginia Allan, Paige Berges, James Brilliant, Yasmine Chubin, Vittorio Cottafavi, Amy D’Angelo, James Day, Andrea De Pieri, Sean Duffy, Melissa Godwin, Justin Harrison, Andrew Hope, Li-Tian Hsieh, Vanina Alexandra Huard de Verneuil, Nicole Kearse, Christopher Le Mon, Amy Lewis, Daniel Lewis, Tom Lewis, Lerato Molefe, Amanda Partridge, Stephen Penner, Nora Pines, Christopher Ryan, Peter Saad, Christian Rudloff, Christina Schuetz, Anna Shearer, Sebastian Schorr, William Steinberg, Andrew Stephens, William Wade Sutton, Jr., Ashley Walker, Shirley Wang, Michel Werthenschlag, Veronica Wissel, and Kristin Woolf; and international trainees Matthew Brown, Karan Chopra, Anna Fingerit, James Leslie, Richard Neil Porter, Victoria Anne Saklow, Gavanjit Sian, and Ryan Williams; legal assistant Anny Espinal; pro bono specialist Jorge Escobedo; and summer associate Tiffany Sepulveda.

Anna Fingerit, victoria Anne saclow, Amanda partridge, ryan williams, john Adams, sebastian shorr, tiffany sepulveda, and stephen hibbard

ABU DHABI | BEIJING | BRUSSELS | DÜSSELDORF | FRANKFURT | HONG KONG | LONDON | MENLO PARK | MUNICHNEW YORK | PARIS | ROME | SAN FRANCISCO | SÃO PAULO | SHANGHAI | SINGAPORE | TOKYO | TORONTO | WASHINGTON, DC

p l e a s e c o n t a c t pro Bono counsel And director oF pro Bono sArAlyn cohen At 212.848.8772 or scohen@sheArmAn.com with Any questions or Article ideAs.

copyright © 2009 shearman & sterling llp. As used herein, “shearman & sterling” refers to shearman & sterling llp,

a limited liability partnership organized under the laws of the state of delaware.

proactive is a review of pro Bono activities at shearman & sterling llp.

For the past couple of years, stories of home foreclosures, predatory lending, and mortgage fraud have been

omnipresent. But hearing about it on the news is one thing; trying to help someone who has been thrown out

of her home is quite another, as I recently learned. We represented a woman, B, who had lost her home in San

Jose, California as a result of a mortgage fraud scheme.

uncovering mortgage fraud

Her story was that of a classic con: When B fell behind on her mortgage payments and was in default (the first stage of foreclosure proceedings), she was put in touch with a man who told her that he and a friend could help her save her home. The man was charismatic and B developed a trusting, personal relationship with him. The program was described to B as an emergency loan, whereby the gentleman and his friend would be added onto the house’s title along with B, until she paid off the loan. B, who had made it clear that she didn’t want to sell her home, agreed to sign the “loan” papers.

Unfortunately, the papers B had signed were not for a loan, but were instead for the sale of her home to an entity owned by the two men. She had unwittingly entered into what is known as a sale-leaseback trans-action, whereby she sold her home (at a below-market price), entered into a lease agreement permitting her to continue living in it, and held a one-year option to repurchase the home.

losing her homeShortly after entering into this transaction, B was told by the man that, because he cared for her and believed she was a good person, the loan was forgiven and she didn’t have to make any payments. Months later, B began receiving notices that she owed tens of thousands of dollars in back rent, and eventually realized that she no longer owned her home. She tried for many months but was unable to get her house back. Eventually, an unlawful detainer action was brought against B, and she was kicked out of her home along with her daughter and baby grandson.

We began representing B shortly thereafter, at which point the men defaulted on the mortgages and allowed the home to be sold in a foreclosure sale. As we con-ducted depositions and approached trial, our difficulties of proof were enormous, because the only evidence of the fraud itself was B’s testimony. We determined, with the assistance of a jury consultant, that because of B’s history of failing to pay her mortgage or rent, as well as some inconsistencies in her testimony (she had difficulty keeping dates and the order of events straight), it would be very difficult to convince a jury to side with her.

case successfully settledLuckily, California has a strong mortgage fraud protection law that requires a purchaser of a home in foreclosure proceedings to provide numerous notices and a can-cellation period during which the home cannot be encumbered or transferred. The men failed to comply with these requirements, and we were able to win a summary adjudication motion establishing their liability under this California law. With this ruling in hand, we were able to settle just three days before trial for almost $250,000, which was much more than the equity B had held in her home.

B had struggled with her emotions throughout her videotaped depositions and was dreading the prospect of trial. She is thrilled with the result, feels vindicated, and is happy to have this terrible experience behind her.

This case was supervised by San Francisco Litigation partner Patrick Robbins, and was also staffed by San Francisco Litigation associates Azadeh Gowharrizi, Morgan Hector, and Mary Moycik.

by e mil y v. g r iff e ngriffen is a litigation associate in the san Francisco office.