James Berger

James Berger is a litigation partner resident at DLA Piper in New York and Washington. He focuses his practice on international disputes and cross-border enforcement and asset recovery, representing clients in a broad range of international and domestic conflicts before US courts and arbitral tribunals. A significant portion of his practice includes the enforcement of arbitral awards and foreign judgments against sovereign and commercial entities in the US and globally. James also has experience in multi-jurisdictional asset recovery proceedings involving allegations of fraud.

James has served as lead counsel in some of the most cutting-edge cross-border cases to be litigated in US trial and appellate courts in recent years. He has considerable experience litigating issues under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, the New York Convention, the Panama Convention, ICSID, the Energy Charter Treaty, the Uniform Foreign Money Judgments Recognition Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1782, and other treaties and statutes that have unique applicability in cross-border disputes. He has considerable experience advising not only foreign investors and parties to cross-border disputes, but also litigation funders, hedge funds and other dispute investors and financial stakeholders who play a critical role in the resolution of large commercial and investor-state disputes.

James speaks and writes regularly on topics related to international dispute resolution and enforcement. He has been a guest lecturer at New York University School of Law, Fordham University School of Law, and Renmin University School of Law in Beijing, and cases he has handled have served as the basis for semester-long international disputes classes at NYU and Fordham Law Schools. He conceived, edited, and was a contributing author to International Aspects of U.S. Litigation (ABA, 2017), a two-volume practice treatise on the litigation of international disputes in US courts, and has published expert analyses on international disputes issues in Law360, as well as been a guest contributor on legal issues to the South China Morning Post, a leading daily newspaper in Hong Kong. He is a graduate of GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Urban Affairs and the proud parent of two GW undergraduate students, one son at GW School of Business and one son at the Elliott School.  James was also recently appointed an executive circle member of the Institute for International Economic Policy of the Elliott School for International Affairs at the George Washington University.