Court Opens Third Party's Files To Aid Private International Arbitration
Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.04.07
Crowell & Moring won a precedent setting victory on December 19, when the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia held in In re Roz Trading Ltd., No. 1:06-cv-02305-WSD, that a private arbitral panel qualified as a "tribunal" under 28 U.S.C. § 1782 thus permitting Roz to obtain documents from Coca-Cola in an international arbitration pending before the Vienna International Arbitral Centre against Uzbekistan and others. The court relied heavily on the Supreme Court's rationale in Intel Corp v. Advanced Micro Devices, 542 U.S. 241 (2004) to reject application of two prior Court of Appeals (2nd and 5th Circuits) decisions that had held Section 1782 did not apply to private arbitration, thus opening the door for government contractors who find themselves in arbitrated disputes with their foreign government customers and in need of discovery from entities located in the United States.
Contacts
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
