Biography

Zack Bluestone’s practice focuses on commercial litigation and asset recovery, as well as judgment enforcement, including matters with cross-border components.

Zack represents plaintiffs and defendants in all manners of commercial litigation, and with an emphasis on creditor’s rights, including fraud and fraudulent transfers, business disputes, and contentious real estate matters. Zack’s clients include public and private credit insurers, such as the U.S. Export-Import Bank, and other quasi-governmental and private export credit agencies in Europe and Asia, as well as publicly traded companies, real estate developers, small and medium sized businesses, and high net worth individuals.

As a seasoned litigator, Zack advises clients on complex disputes in court proceedings and arbitration. Recent successful engagements include a complete victory on behalf of a D.C.-based commercial real estate developer where he obtained dismissal, with prejudice, of a nine-count lawsuit demanding $21 million in damages, pursuing claims of fraud, misrepresentation, and breach of contract. Zack also successfully executed on a judgment, based on a California arbitral award against the U.S. assets of a leading Spanish wine distributor. Zack led the team seizing nearly $2 million before the monies could be channeled out of the U.S.

Zack also has extensive experience striking down fraudulent transfers. Recently, he was able to a secure a $5 million judgment in the S.D.N.Y. against a large fashion distributor; the judgment led to a fraudulent conveyance action against the majority shareholder challenging the repayment of insider loans made to the judgment debtor company 20 years prior, where the insider had a perfected security interest, and which were repaid during the pendency of the lawsuit—and as the business was collapsing. The matter was a case of first impression in New York and resolved with a highly favorable settlement before trial.

Early in his career, Zack was part of the team which secured a major victory against one of the world’s leading trust institutions in the UK. In the late 90s, an English company established and funded an employee benefit trust for its employees, however, prior to any employees’ rights vesting, the company went out of business. With no mechanism for distributions or expressly identified beneficiaries, the trust company refused to part with invested monies. On behalf of the former CEO, and other executives, the firm managed multiple legal actions, in England and Guernsey (Channel Islands), leading to one of the largest recoveries in firm history.

Zack has represented clients in proceedings in federal and state courts throughout he U.S. and in arbitral tribunals around the world.

Additionally, Zack travels extensively to represent the firm, which provides the opportunity to build strong partnerships with co-counsel and clients globally.

Zack, a Washington, D.C. native, is a graduate of Connecticut College and Rutgers University School of Law. During his tenure at Rutgers, Zack was a legal intern for the Honorable Judith H. Wizmur (ret.), Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey.

Representative Cases

• Lead counsel in a $77 million breach of contract and fraud-related arbitration before the American Arbitration Association on behalf of an Asian/Hong Kong based consumer goods distributor, that also included related parallel federal and state court litigation.

• Lead counsel in a judgment enforcement matter and located more than $12 million in improper insider preference payments within the New York Debtor and Creditor Law statute of limitations. After filing a detailed and nuanced brief before the federal court in New York in support of vacating the fraudulently conveyed funds and instituting an action against a conspiring law firm that laundered transfers through its trust account to avoid execution, a favorable global settlement was reached.

• Represent a leading mid-Atlantic commercial property owner with a significant judgment against a former anchor retail tenant, we successfully won a summary judgment motion voiding over a million dollars in fraudulent transfers made by the former tenant to its insider affiliate.

• Represent a foreign export credit insurer in securing a $5 million judgment in federal court in New York against a large fashion distributor. The judgment led to a fraudulent conveyance action against the majority shareholder who repaid secured insider loans to himself during the pendency of the lawsuit and as the business was collapsing. After multiple briefing requests from Judge Jesse Furman, the matter settled favorably prior to a substantive ruling.

Bar & Court Admissions

• District of Columbia

• New York

• Maryland

• U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

• U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York

• U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

Education

• J.D. Rutgers University School of Law, 2007

• B.A. Connecticut College, 2002