Counsel Karlinsky LLC 570 Lexington Avenue, Suite 1600 New York, NY 10022 Tel 646.380.0036 / 203.570.2310 Fax 646.380.0039 george.hritz@karlinskyllc.com George Hritz resolves disputes. Practicing in New York and Washington, D.C., George has extensive experience handling handling sophisticated litigation, arbitration and other disputes for well-known clients. He also provides crisis management and business-oriented legal and strategic advice to a broad range of other clients, particularly those with small or no legal departments, often acting as de facto general counsel. George has tried, managed and otherwise resolved large-scale matters for major financial and high-tech institutions and others in numerous venues throughout the U.S. and overseas. While he never hesitates to take a matter to trial, George regularly looks for solutions that go beyond just winning the case. He has had great success in resolving disputes creatively by effectively achieving consensus among all of the parties involved, often with considerable savings for his clients. At Karlinsky, he is continuing his dispute resolution practice as well as providing strategic advice and assisting clients on the management of other counsel, including monitoring law firm and consultant performance and billing. George is known for his adaptability; nothing is done by rote and everything is pursued with the client s best interests in mind. Specialties International and U.S. arbitration and litigation; judgment and award enforcement; handling financial, energy, infrastructure, real estate, transportation and high-technology issues and general counsel services. Legal experience includes: - Lead counsel representing European services and equipment supplier in U.S. federal court proceedings to recover mid-nine figure French judgment against non-u.s. national oil company. 1
- Lead litigation and arbitration counsel representing multinational, high-technology firm in U.S. federal court injunction and international arbitration trial proceedings, halting proposed merger between client's joint venture partner and client's major competitor and, in the merits phases of trial, obtained favorable awards on all claims and defenses. - Lead litigation/arbitration counsel representing multinational, high-technology firm in U.S. federal court injunction and related proceeding, preventing a major transaction by a joint venture partner until obligations to client were satisfied. - Lead counsel in complex litigation defending major international financial institution and resolving a multimillion-dollar lawsuit without payment by client, negotiating complete release for client and negotiating settlement pursuant to which co-defendants paid client's U.S. and international counsels' legal fees. - Lead counsel in international arbitration obtaining favorable resolution of contract claims involving pharmaceutical products development, including significant cost recovery. Mr. Hritz clerked for a federal district judge in New York and spent his associate years at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, one of the leading business litigation firms in the world. In 1980, Mr. Hritz became one of the seven original partners in Davis, Markel, Dwyer & Edwards, which ultimately grew to over 50 lawyers and became the New York litigation group of Hogan & Hartson, then Washington, D.C. s oldest major law firm. In 2011, Mr. Hritz joined the New York office of Thompson & Knight, a Texas-based energy law firm until he moved his practice to Karlinsky LLC in 2014. Education Columbia University School of Law, J.D., 1973 (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar) Princeton University, A.B., History 1969 2
Admissions Supreme Court of the United States; United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third, Fourth, Eleventh and D.C. Circuits; U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, D.C.; Member of New York Bar and District of Columbia Bar. Memberships D.C. Bar Association; Federal Bar Council (2d Circuit) Published works Koehler v. Bank of Bermuda Three Years Later: Fewer Places to Hide (with Amy Lehman) American Bar Association 22 October 2012 "It has now been three years since New York s highest court ruled in Koehler v. Bank of Bermuda, 12 N.Y. 3d 533, 911 N.E.2d 825 (2009), that under New York law, courts may access judgment debtors assets anywhere in the world as long as those assets are held by a bank that also has a branch in New York, as do many large international banks. Although there have been a few significant reported decisions discussing Koehler since 2009, there has also not been the disastrous increase in post-judgment litigation predicted by some." This article discusses domestication of foreign country judgments, post-judgment discovery, obtaining overseas assets, New York s separate-entity doctrine and post-koehler cases. Mr. Hritz has also published more than a dozen other articles in U.S., European, Asian and Middle Eastern publications and has presented at numerous litigation and arbitration conferences and panels. Subjects have included electronic discovery, international arbitration, separate settlement counsel and other dispute resolution techniques, extraterritorial jurisdiction, litigation funding, legal history and U.S. anti-slavery litigation. 3
Rankings and Recognitions - Peer Review Rated as AV Preeminent, the top performance rating under Martindale-Hubbell s peer review lawyer rating system. - Selected for inclusion in New York Super Lawyers - Who s Who in America - Who s Who in the World - Who s Who in the Law Community and Leadership/Pro Bono Highlights In addition to his law practice, Mr. Hritz is Co-Founder, Board Chairman Emeritus, and Legal Counsel of Princeton in Africa ("PiAf"), which has placed over 300 recent college and professional school graduates at over 50 organizations working in over 30 African countries since 1999. Mr. Hritz has also served for over 30 years on the board of the International Rescue Committee, a prominent refugee relief organization and was formerly its General Counsel. He has traveled on board delegations and other business to Rwanda, Burundi, D.R. Congo, Liberia, Côte d'ivoire, Guinea, Zaire, Tanzania, Kosovo and Macedonia, as well as throughout Asia, Europe and the Americas. He has served as Associate Independent Counsel in a federal grand jury investigation and lengthy trial of a former U.S. government official and as Associate Special Counsel to a Special Inquiry by the United States Senate in Washington, D.C. He also served as the Chairman of a Town Planning Board in Westchester County, New York, as the capital campaign co-chair for a historic Westchester church and chairman and member of co-op and condominium boards in Connecticut and Manhattan. 4
Representative Clients Mr. Hritz s clients have represented a broad range of businesses, non-profits and individuals. In the case of certain of the clients mentioned below, Mr. Hritz has served as outside general counsel, representing the client in a broad range of matters over many years; in other cases, Mr. Hritz has represented the client in special circumstances. - Numerous international banks - Two major aircraft manufacturers - European satellite manufacturer and operator - Several major high-tech computer hardware and software firms. - International videogame companies - Hedge funds and merchant bank - International forest products firm - Oil and gas products and service supplier - Families and individuals (including investment disputes involving limited partnerships and other investment vehicles) 5