Born and raised in France, Thomas P. Vandenabeele received a Juris Doctorate and a Master of Laws from the University of Lille 2, France, and his LL.M. from Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis. He represents individual and corporations including a variety of French entities in commercial litigation matters in the United States and is president of the French American Bar Association. He also serves as General Counsel of the French Consulate General in New York (“Avocat-conseil aupres du consulat general de France à New York”). He is also an adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law and a Visiting Professor at EDHEC Business School, Lille, France.

Mr. Vandenabeele represents French businesses and individuals in their commercial litigations in the United States. He also obtains recognition and enforcement of foreign money judgments in New York.

Mr. Vandenabeele practices complex commercial litigation with a focus on bank fraud, money laundering, investigations and hidden asset recovery, which cross international jurisdictions to include, France, Switzerland, the British Virgin Islands, Panama, and Liechtenstein. Mr. Vandenabeele has been part of a team that obtained a $264 million judgment in a high-profile matter, representing French interests that allege loan monies and collateral were fraudulently stolen using a web of offshore entities and accounts. Mr. Vandenabeele also frequently lectures on international litigation topics.

Mr. Vandenabeele is an Adjunct Professor at Fordham University, School of law, where he teaches the class of “doing business in the E.U.” He is also a Visiting Professor at EDHEC Business School, Lille, France.

Education
J.D. (“maitrise”), Universite de Lille II, Lille, France 1999
Master of Laws (“D.E.A”) concentrating on the European Construction issues, Universite de Lille II, Lille, France 2001
LL.M, Indiana University School of Law, Indianapolis

Bar Admissions
New York State, 2006
US District Court for the Southern District of New York
US District Court for the Eastern District of New York

Affiliations
Since 2008, Mr. Vandenabeele has been serving as President of the French American Bar Association (http://www.faba-law.com”) that he co-founded in 2007.
He is also a Board Member of the Committee of French Speaking Societies (http://www.cafusa.org), of Union des Francais de l’Etranger (http://www.ufe.org/); as well as a member of American Society of Le Souvenir Francais (http://www.souvenirfrancais-usa.org/). And of l’Association des Cadres de Reserve Francais aux Etats Unis (ACREFEU) (http://acrefeu.org/).

Etude Max Mailliet was founded in 2008 with the aim of combining a rigorous internal structure with high-quality legal advice and a one-to-one approach, promoting the closeness to our clients and the best response to their needs.

We provide legal assistance in complex commercial and fraud litigation, in white collar crime cases, as well as in insolvency proceedings.

We are also frequently appointed by the Courts as insolvency receiver and judicial liquidator of companies.

Amongst our clients are private investors, banks, investment funds, professionals of the financial sector and also directors of companies.

We are active in the following fields:

Commercial & international Litigation. White Collar Crime.
International judicial cooperation in criminal matters.
Criminal liability of legal persons.
Asset tracing.
Alternative Dispute Resolution.
Insolvency & bankruptcy law.
Court-ordered liquidation of companies and/or investment funds.

Prior to opening his own firm, Max Mailliet was an associate in the litigation and corporate law departments of a major Luxembourg law firm.

He holds: an LLM from the London School of Economics, a Maîtrise en droit des affaires (Master in Business law) from the Université Robert Schuman (Strasbourg III, France).

Max is also a candidate notary.

Michael Jason Lee began his legal career as a legal intern in the Office of Legal Counsel to the President (White House) during President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial, followed by a judicial externship with the Honorable Ronald George, Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court. After being admitted to the State Bar of California in 2000 and completing his judicial externship, Michael founded the Law Offices of Michael Jason Lee, where he continues to work today.

Over the past 25 years, Michael has gained extensive experience handling a broad spectrum of complex civil litigation matters and, in the process, served as lead counsel or lead instructing counsel in cases spanning more than 25 states and 35 countries. Michael has also developed a specialized expertise in cryptocurrency, internet gambling/gaming law and high risk internet payment processing, and is regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts in asset recovery cases in these areas. More generally, Michael has successfully litigated many major multi-jurisdictional asset preservation, asset recovery and fraud cases for his clients, which have included individuals, governmental entities, regulatory bodies and large companies from around the world. Michael’s aggressive and innovative approach to litigation, dedicated focus to protecting his clients’ commercial interests and track record of outstanding results have earned him a reputation as a leading international fraud and asset recovery specialist.

Michael also has a longstanding commitment to serving the under serviced. Since becoming an attorney, Michael has worked more than 3,000 hours in either a pro bono or reduced fee capacity to provide legal services to individuals facing injustices or hardships that would otherwise not be able to afford them.

Luis Alfredo Barragán Arango is the founding partner of Asteri Law Firm, a Colombian boutique, truly independent, primary dedicated to Litigation, Arbitration, Insolvency, and Asset Recovery.

With more than 30 years of experience, Luis Alfredo has an extensive expertise in representing high-profile clients in the most complex domestic and cross-border insolvency proceedings, both in Colombia and overseas. Also, Luis Alfredo has as counsel in international and domestic arbitrations, and in the most representative litigations in Colombia before domestic courts. He is acclaimed for his deep knowledge in highly complex disputes related to public law, telecommunications, oil & gas, secured transactions, and commercial matters. His practice covers all areas of sophisticated litigations, alternative dispute resolution, restructuring, asset recovery, and insolvency matters.

Luis Alfredo is also member of the International Association of Restructuring, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Professionals – INSOL (London – UK) and has also served as counsel for the World Bank, the Inter-American Bank of Development, and the USAID on matters related to guarantees and their execution within reorganization proceedings. He has also drafted several bills to amend the Colombian General Procedure Code.

Moreover, Mr. Barragán has acted as leading counsel in arbitrations conducted under the main institutional arbitration rules, such as the ICC rules and the UNCITRAL rules, and has also served as international arbitrator in proceedings held under the ICC rules and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) rules. He has also been appointed as an expert witness before US Courts. He is part of the Lists of Arbitrators of the Chambers of Commerce of Bogotá, Cali, Cartagena, and Medellin, and is member to the Latin American Arbitration Group of the ICC.

He has been ranked as one of the best lawyers of his specialty by Who’s Who Legal, Chambers & Partners, Latin Lawyer, Best Lawyers, Euromoney, The Legal 500 Latin America, among others.

Lee Shih is a commercial disputes lawyer and the managing partner of Lim Chee Wee Partnership. He acts regularly in matters involving commercial and corporate disputes, including fraud and asset recovery, shareholders’ disputes, international arbitrations and contentious insolvency matters.

He has acted in multi-jurisdictional fraud and asset recovery matters. He regularly works with forensic accountants, intelligence companies, and foreign counsel in leading and coordinating fraud litigation. He has acted for and advised state-owned entities, foreign multinationals, and private equity funds.

He is recognised in the area of dispute resolution in the legal directories of Chambers Asia-Pacific and The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific.

Lim Chee Wee Partnership is a boutique litigation firm specialising in commercial litigation and international arbitration. The three founding partners were from the dispute resolution practice of one of Malaysia’s largest law firms.

Ashanti was admitted to practice in Belize in 2004 and during this time she has garnered considerable experience in litigation and transactional matters. She has worked on several landmark constitutional and trade mark cases, complex multi-jurisdictional fraud and asset recovery cases, labour disputes, real estate disputes, commercial disputes, local and offshore corporations and real estate transactions. She also has considerable experience in banking and has represented foreign lenders in one of Belize’s largest multi-million dollar syndicated loans.

Ashanti is considered a leading attorney in Belize in Fraud and Asset Recovery, and has presented at local and international conferences on Belize’s Offshore Sector and Asset Recovery in Belize. Due to her work in asset recovery, in 2013 she was invited to join ICC FraudNet, a network of attorneys who specialize in Fraud and Asset Recovery.

Ashanti has argued before the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal in Belize, and has appeared as Co-Counsel in several high profile cases before the Caribbean Court of Justice (Belize’s final appellate Court).

Memberships:
Secretary, Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry
Executive Committee Member, Bar Association of Belize
Director, St. John’s College
Member, Belize’s National Mediation Committee
Member, ICC FraudNet

Professional Recognition:
Who’s Who Legal: Asset Recovery 2014-2016
Who’s Who Legal: Central America (Dispute Resolution) 2016

Balderamos Arthurs LLP:
Balderamos Arthurs LLP is a full service law firm whose attorneys have distinguished themselves academically and continue to do so professionally. We pride ourselves on our ability to find innovative and practical solutions for our clients and we work tirelessly to vindicate our clients’ rights.

Our attorneys have extensive experience in many areas of the law and have been pioneers in the areas of Fraud and Asset Recovery, Patent and Trademarks, Estates and Succession and Family law in Belize.  Our attorneys are known for their competence in undertaking complex matters including multi-jurisdictional litigation and transactions.

Our attorneys have successfully assisted clients in litigation involving constitutional and public law challenges, fraud cases, banking and debt collection, contract disputes, tort litigation, liquidation and receivership litigation, land disputes, estate matters, divorce and matrimonial property cases, and intellectual law disputes.

We have an experienced and efficient staff and are therefore poised to deliver timely results to our clients.