Sara Beiro Farabow

Chair of the International Dispute Resolution Group

Sara is the leader of Seyfarth’s International Dispute Resolution Group and former national co-chair of the Construction Practice Group. Her practice is devoted to counseling clients on international arbitration and other cross-border dispute resolution proceedings, as well as complex domestic and international procurement issues, contract administration, claims, insurance, cross-border transactions, risk management, and project finance. For more than 30 years, Sara has served clients worldwide in large-scale construction, renewable energy, hospitality, mixed-use retail, infrastructure, and military projects. These include industrial plants, biofuel refineries, hotel development and renovations, condominium hotels, resorts, multifamily housing, high-rise office buildings, educational facilities, airports, light and heavy rail mass transit systems, bridges, military barracks, power plants, and wastewater treatment plants. She has arbitrated matters in proceedings administered by the International Center for Dispute Resolution (ICDR, the international division of the American Arbitration Association), the International Chamber of Commerce, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, and other tribunals.

Owen Wolfe

Partner and Editor of Seyfarth’s International Dispute Resolution Law Blog

Owen Wolfe is an experienced litigator with a focus on intellectual property and complex commercial disputes. He represents clients in high-stakes trademark, copyright, and trade secret litigation, as well as appellate matters in federal and state courts across the U.S. As co-lead of Seyfarth’s Appellate Group, Owen excels at guiding clients through the appellate process, preserving issues at trial, and crafting effective appeals strategies. His international experience includes handling multi-jurisdictional cases involving foreign sovereign immunity and cross-border discovery. With a tech-savvy approach, Owen combines deep industry knowledge with modern litigation techniques to achieve favorable outcomes for his clients.

Alison Ashford

Partner and Co-Chair of the Construction Practice

Alison has represented clients in the procurement of international and domestic projects, including via public-private partnership; in the sectors of economic infrastructure (rail, aviation, transportation, wastewater, and desalination projects); and social infrastructure (education, housing, and health projects). She has represented the full range of stakeholders on public projects and takes advantage of having sat on all sides of the negotiating table by promoting straightforward and bankable solutions. Alison has been a trusted advisor to investors, sponsors, design-builders, and operations and maintenance contractors on the optimum allocation of risk on individual projects. She has an intuitive understanding of what is required to “get a deal done” and facilitates the resolution of issues via commercial and practical solutions.

Matthew Banham

Matthew is a leading practitioner in corporate investigations and white-collar crime, advising firms and individuals on financial crime, regulatory matters, bribery, corruption, money laundering, fraud, and market abuse. He has secured successful outcomes for major firms in the UK and EMEA and has a strong record in sensitive SFO and FCA investigations for executives. His background includes in-house work in the financial sector, roles at the FCA and SFO, and expertise in ESG compliance and multi-agency enforcement. He has led significant cases, including global bribery and market manipulation investigations, and served as senior VP at a multinational financial institution, managing external investigations and regulatory risks.

Jesse M. Coleman

Partner and Co-Chair of the Health Law Group
Jesse has handled numerous trade secrets and non-compete matters for clients across all industries, including energy, hospitality, and telecommunications. He has successfully prosecuted and defended against trade-secret and restrictive-covenant claims in bet-the-company disputes and managed teams of dozens of lawyers in massive multi-national litigation. He has also successfully litigated non-compete/non-solicitation matters across the country and led forensic investigations in tracking down and identifying trade-secret theft. Jesse’s experience in trade secret and restrictive covenant matters extends beyond litigation. He has assisted his clients throughout the years in managing the risks associated with both new and departing employees. Much of this work includes counseling his clients on the enforceability of new employees’ existing restrictive covenants with former employers. He also advises clients on how to best enforce departing employees’ restrictive covenants to protect the clients’ legitimate business interests.

Jeffrey M. Hummel

Partner and Committee Member of International Dispute Resolution Group

Jeff has worked with world-renowned clients, experts, and counsel on high-profile construction projects (some over $1 billion) around the world. He also regularly advises clients on smaller regional projects. This allows Jeff to achieve successful results based on the needs and perspectives of clients involved in all types of projects.

Steven J. Kmieciak

Senior Counsel

Steve has participated in all aspects of major construction projects—international and domestic, public and private. He has represented contractors, industrial owners, commercial developers, and governments, where he drafted and negotiated contracts, advised on matters arising during construction, prepared and presented claims, and resolved disputes in international and domestic arbitrations, as well as federal and state courts. That extensive, diverse experience has shaped Steve’s 360-degree approach when guiding clients through the complexities of construction projects. Steve has been involved in all aspects of many types of projects, including high-rise office and condominium projects, hotels, industrial facilities, dredging, above- and below-ground heavy rail mass transit systems, bridges, airport facilities, container seaports, wharves and civil works.

Karen Lam

Consultant

Karen has a mixed practice, not only focusing on general commercial litigation but also regulatory disputes and compliance. Her knowledge in the private equity world helps her clients to resolve their disputes more efficiently. Karen started her practice as a litigator 10 years ago. Through the years, she has gained experience in both local and international law firms serving clients from multinational corporations to high net-worth individuals. Her latest opportunity was to work on several non-contentious private equity matters, which provided her a deeper understanding of her private equity clients and strengthened her skills in handling regulatory disputes.

Jing Li

Consultant

Jing is dual-qualified as an attorney in Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as a Hong Kong-certified tax advisor. She is well-equipped to handle complex legal and tax matters in cross-border business and transactions. Jing has practiced law in London, Beijing, Melbourne, and Hong Kong for more than a decade. She has advised Chinese and foreign companies and family offices on various outbound and inbound investment projects. These include greenfield, merger and acquisition, joint venture, pre-IPO investments, and corporate restructuring, and general corporate and commercial legal matters, with a focus on the Greater Bay Area of China, Japan, and Southeast Asia.

Edward F. Maluf

Co-Chair of the Intellectual Property Practice and Co-Lead of the Advertising & Marketing Group
Ed has nearly three decades of experience representing domestic and foreign clients. His IP experience started early in his career and includes matters that deal with quickly changing and developing technologies. One such case from the 1990s, as the internet was becoming ubiquitous, resulted in a landmark decision that recast the “hot news” misappropriation doctrine and its status under federal copyright preemption. Although always a New Yorker, Ed has lived abroad in Spanish- and German-speaking countries. He is a first-generation American son of Dominican parents. He grew up speaking Spanish as his native language and became conversant in German while a college student.

Gregory A. Markel

Senior Counsel
Greg is a well-known trial lawyer in securities, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, directors and officers defense, antitrust litigation, ICC arbitrations, and other complex commercial litigation, particularly in bet-your-company cases. He has been recognized by Chambers as a leading securities lawyer for 19 years, as a leading antitrust lawyer by Best Lawyers, and as a leading commercial litigator by Legal 500 and Benchmark Litigation. Among his many foreign matters is a successful ICC arbitration against a large Spanish construction company for the Royal Bank of Canada in several matters including derivative litigation, securities litigation, bankruptcy claims, and investigations. BP in matters in Holland, Spain, the UK, and the United States and litigation in Hong Kong for a UK firm. He represented ABM AMRO in proceedings in Amsterdam concerning Enron and served as an expert witness in litigation for different clients in Israel and Bermuda.

Bret C. Marfut

Associate
As a part of Seyfarth’s International Organizations and Foreign Sovereigns team, Bret helps international organizations and foreign sovereigns preserve their statutory and treaty-based immunities from suit. Bret has litigated significant cases of first impression regarding the immunity of international organizations in the D.D.C. and D.C. Circuit.

James C. McGrath

Co-Chair of the Franchise & Distribution Group
For more than 25 years, James has worked with clients in highly regulated industries as they look to establish, grow, and maintain their businesses and distribution networks. Drawing on his substantial knowledge across franchise and distribution, antitrust and competition, and complex commercial litigation, James evaluates risk and determines a strategic course of action that best suits his clients’ objectives. He is an experienced trial lawyer with a track record of success at the trial and appellate levels before state and federal courts, and administrative agencies internationally.

Kate Perrelli

Co-Chair of the Trade Secrets, Computer Fraud and Non-Competes Practice

Kate is her clients’ first call when they face challenges with unfair competition, trade secret misappropriation, and other intellectual property theft, restrictive covenant litigation, complex commercial disputes, wrongful termination, and internal workplace misconduct and compliance complaints. In addition to representing her clients across the country on such matters in federal and state courts, arbitrations, and mediations, she is also frequently retained to conduct complex investigations concerning executives, internal workplace misconduct, and other internal complaints. Her services also include preparation and implementation of individual and multistate employer non-compete, non-solicit, nondisclosure, and other restrictive covenant agreements for national and global employers; advice regarding onboarding of employees or groups of employees from a competitor, or departing employees joining a competitor; and preparation and implementation of trade secret protection programs, including trade secret audits.

William L. Prickett

Chair of the Securities & Fiduciary Duty Litigation Practice and Committee Member of the International Dispute Resolution Group
Will counsel and defend clients in a wide variety of high-stakes—and often bet-the-company—litigation matters, including securities litigation and enforcement, fiduciary duty claims, patent litigation, and product liability litigation. Will recently obtained a decision by the Supreme Court of South Korea, ruling in favor of his client and reversing a lower court judgment. In this decade-long case, the client was sued by a class of more than 17,000 plaintiffs, and the Supreme Court reversed the adverse lower court judgment, which was in excess of $100 million.

Eddy Salcedo

Senior Counsel
Ed has extensive experience in such cross-disciplinary disputes, having successfully represented a wide range of clients in construction, partnership, trade secret, restrictive covenant, contract enforcement, and shareholder disputes. Ed’s broad cross-practice experience allows him to keep the big picture in focus, as well as to have a better understanding of his client’s unique business needs.

Ashely Sherwood

Partner
Ashley represents general contractors, subcontractors, and developers of all sizes on complex private and public construction projects at the state and federal levels, as well as internationally. Ashley’s experience includes representing clients in complex multiparty actions, as well as bringing and defending against impact and inefficiency, delay, indemnity, differing site conditions, and other contract-based claims. Her litigation experience includes bench and jury trials, mediation, arbitration, and appellate arguments.

Jeffrey Sims

Partner
Jeffrey has advised on the regulation of derivatives and other financial products and has structured and traded commodities, including energy and metals, as well as foreign exchange and fixed income. He has practiced with major international law firms in Beijing, Hong Kong, and San Francisco, and with investment management firms in London. Jeffrey has advised clients on cross-border investment, mergers and acquisitions, technology licensing, and related global business problems. He has significant experience with international acquisitions, with activity in several countries simultaneously.

John R. Skelton


Co-Chair of the Franchise & Distribution Group
John works with clients in the automobile, restaurant, hospitality, and bedding industries, developing a deep knowledge and understanding of those industries and the complex web of federal and state laws and regulations governing his clients’ distribution networks. John knows his clients’ business, people, and agreements—something he believes is essential to being able to resolve disputes and develop effective business strategies. John especially enjoys working with some of the largest, most sophisticated automotive manufacturers and distribution clients, and relishes the daily challenge of anticipating the emerging trends and issues facing clients in one of the most heavily regulated franchise industries.

Michael Wexler


Chair of the Trade Secrets, Non-Compete and Computer Fraud Practice
Michael is a seasoned trial attorney with extensive and successful jury and bench trials throughout the United States for clients of all sizes, including some of the largest companies in the world. His practice focuses on trial work and counseling in the areas of trade secrets and restrictive covenants, corporate espionage, unfair competition, complex commercial disputes, intellectual property infringement, and white collar criminal defense in both federal and state courts.

Kenneth L. Wilton


Lead of Trademark Practice
Ken‘s trademark practice is international in scope, and his recognition of the differences and interplay between litigation in specific jurisdictions and how those differences can be leveraged has proved invaluable in addressing cross-border intellectual property matters. Domestically, Ken litigates infringement and counterfeiting disputes in the federal courts and has extensive experience with opposition and cancellation proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, including more than a dozen trials. He has supervised the conduct of international anti-counterfeiting activities, and has filed or defended more than two dozen proceedings under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP). Ken has advised on and litigated a wide variety of comparative advertising issues, including establishment and product line claims. He regularly counsels clients in the social media space, particularly in connection with influencer marketing issues.

Raymond Wong

Partner
Ray has spent more than two decades working in China, the US, the UK, and Canada on a wide range of cross-border transactions and other corporate matters. Ray has significant experience in corporate law, including mergers and acquisitions, general corporate and commercial matters, corporate strategies, IPOs, regulatory compliance, and public takeovers. Many of his clients appreciate his personal, pragmatic approach to solving their problems, as well as his strong business acumen.

Ashley Smith

Associate
Ashley discovered her interest in law as an undergraduate when she was a law clerk for a criminal defense barrister firm in London, England. On her return to the US, Ashley joined the Illinois Mock Trial Team, leading her team to several victories and a high ranking in the country. Her passion for litigation led her to law school at USC Gould, where she participated in Moot Court, as well as the Post-Conviction Justice Clinic. Ashley successfully litigated two cases in front of the California Board of Parole Hearings, and both clients were released from prison after more than 25 years served.

Michael Wagner

Partner
Mike represents owners, developers, design professionals, general contractors, and subcontractors in complex construction, design, and surety-related disputes on both public and private projects throughout the United States and abroad. Mike has participated in all aspects of a construction project—from project conception, design, contract negotiation, and preconstruction—through the stages of project delivery, construction, close-out, and operation. As a result, he has substantial experience in both transactional work and claims and disputes.