A federal judge in Manhattan ruled on Thursday in favor of the international law firm Hogan Lovells, awarding it more than $1.2 million for legal services provided to Afghanistan’s former government between 2019 and 2021.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian upheld a December 2022 arbitration award by the American Arbitration Association, finding no factual disputes that would preclude summary judgment. The award holds the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the Taliban-led government, responsible for the debt incurred by its Western-backed predecessor.
Hogan Lovells, a law firm with 2,600 lawyers worldwide, declined to comment on the decision. Afghanistan’s Taliban government, which did not participate in the arbitration proceedings or the subsequent U.S. court case, also did not respond to inquiries.
A representative of the Afghan Embassy in Canada was similarly unavailable for comment. The U.S. assumed control of Afghanistan’s embassy in Washington and its New York consulate in 2022.
According to court filings, Hogan Lovells began representing Afghanistan’s Western-backed government on a pro bono basis in 2015. By 2019, the firm had signed a new engagement agreement to handle larger matters, with the government agreeing to pay for half of its billed hours. The government paid Hogan Lovells over $1 million before the Taliban seized Kabul in August 2021, precipitating the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces and the collapse of the Afghan government.
At the time of the Taliban’s return to power, Hogan Lovells was representing at least three Afghan government agencies in arbitration matters. The firm ceased its representation of Afghanistan entirely by November 2021.
The case, Hogan Lovells US LLP v. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, was heard in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York under docket number 1:24-cv-05541.
