Books
The Case of the Welched Reward: Spies, the FBI and Pursuit of Peru’s Most Infamous Fugitive
Reward takes the reader behind the scenes of an international manhunt and an unusual lawsuit that rattled law enforcement in three countries. The story is born out of a real-life spy thriller—the flight of Peru’s notorious National Security chief, Vladimiro Montesinos, who was accused of many crimes that grew to include extra-judicial killings, extortion and stealing a billion dollars in government money. As this tense story unfolds, Reward provides insights for courtroom spectators into the art of persuasion, strategies for cross-examination, and storytelling.
Squeezing Silver: Peru’s Trial Against Nelson Bunker Hunt | Available on Amazon
“With vivid descriptions of characters and events, attorney Mark Cymrot brings alive crucial moments and memorable tensions in the 1988 trial that unveiled one of America’s most colorful and creative financial deceptions: the 1979-1980 scheme to rig the world silver market.” – Ann Hagedorn, Staff Reporter who covered the trial, Wall Street Journal
Unearthing the intricacies of a worldwide conspiracy, tracing billions into brokerage firms and seemingly impenetrable Swiss bank accounts, and shaping a narrative to convince a jury is the work of a trial lawyer. But how is it done in the face of talented advocates mocking your case as a “broad daylight conspiracy” or a “cropped photograph?” In Squeezing Silver, Mark Cymrot explores his insights for legal thriller junkies and students of trial practice.
"The prospect of a trial against a notorious family that created a worldwide financial crisis was irresistible. I did not hesitate.
I assumed I was prepared. I had no concept of what awaited me. "
Prologue, Page xiii, Squeezing Silver
"I glanced over at our opponents. They were the adults; I was a youngster trying to act like an adult."
Page 5, Squeezing Silver
"Bunker wanted to come across as the hapless, misunderstood billionaire who just wanted to invest in a lot of silver and hang around thoroughbred horses. I wanted to expose him as a clever, lying manipulator who stole from a poverty-stricken country, thousands of other traders, and almost crashed the US economy."
Page 38, Squeezing Silver
"We had to introduce our jury – a transit inspector, a teacher, a retired policeman, a young salesman, a nurse, and a college professor – to an array of eccentric characters, the obscure mechanics of the world silver futures markets, and a complex story of secret meetings and coordinated trading that had unlawfully raised silver prices."
Page 6, Squeezing Silver
Chapters
- Cambridge Handbook on Immunities and International Law, “Enforcing Arbitral Awards Against Foreign States” edited by Tom Ruys, Nicolas Angelet, Cambridge University Press (May 2019).
- The Roles of Psychology in International Arbitration, “Going First Makes A Difference: Decision-Making Dynamics in International Arbitration” edited by Tony Cole, Kluwer Law International (April 2017); Reviewed by J. Wessel, B. Pilbrow Transnational Dispute Management (November 2017).
- AAA Handbook on International Arbitration Practice, “Cross-Examination in International Arbitration”, JurisNet LLC (2010).
Articles
- Mealey’s International Arbitration Report, Vol. 34, No. 2 , “Prague Rules: Common Law and Civil Law Advocates Talking Past Each Other” (Feb. 2019)
- disputes.global, “Gramercy Seeks Billions from Peru for 50-Year-Old Bonds” co-authored with P.M. Levine, Katherine Heitman (Oct. 7, 2016)
- Politico.com,“An Opportunity for Puerto Rico”, co-authored with Simon Johnson, Nobel Prize for Economics (May 24, 2016)
- Transnational Dispute Management (TDM), “Going First Makes A Difference: Decision-Making Dynamics in International Arbitration” (Oct. 2014)
- Dispute Resolution Journal,Book Review: “Take the Witness: Cross-Examination in International Arbitration” by Lawrence W. Newman & Ben H. Sheppard Jr., a publication of the American Arbitration Association (Aug.-Oct.2011)
- Dispute Resolution Journal, “Cross-Examination in International Arbitration” (Feb.-Apr. 2007)
- Business Law International,“Welcome To The Jury System: Supreme Court Limits Sovereign Immunity for State Owned Companies” (Sept. 2005)
- The International Lawyer, “Barricades At The IMF; Creating A Municipal Bankruptcy Code For Foreign States,” (Winter 2002).
- Foreign Policy No. 129, “Forgive Us Our Debts”, Contributor (Mar. – Apr., 2002)
- Columbia Law Journal, “Reforming the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,” 40 Col. J. Trans. L. 489 (No. 3, 2002); “Recommendations and Report on the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act,” by a Working Group of the International Litigation Committee of the Section of International Law and Practice of the American Bar Association (March 2001)
- Litigation, Journal of the ABA Litigation Section, “Beginnings” (Fall 1993)
- Litigation, Journal of the ABA Litigation Section, “The Forgotten Rule” (Spring 1992)
- Litigation, Journal of the ABA Litigation Section, “Lessons” (Fall 1991)
- ABA National Institute on International Litigation, “A Case Study in Foreign Discovery: Minpeco S.A. v. Nelson Bunker Hunt” (1989); reprinted The Journal of the Society of English and American Lawyers, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1989); International Quarterly (Jan. 1990); Themis, in Spanish (Jan. 1990)(co-authored with Thomas O. Gorman)