On My Side 2022 Honoree
The Litigator of the Year Award recognizes an attorney who has shown extraordinary commitment and skill in litigating cases under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA). This year’s awardee, Sam Dubbin, has led powerful litigation on behalf of Cuban doctors seeking justice for forced labor in Brazil against the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which the Plaintiffs allege knowingly benefited by serving as the financial intermediary to enable Cuba to traffic thousands of Cuban doctors to Brazil. Sam’s legal work has broken new ground, setting important new precedents to hold accountable those who would profit from labor trafficking. Sam’s litigation has already yielded excellent decisions from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, especially concerning the TVPRA’s reach under the commercial activity exception of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Sam’s innovative litigation to support trafficking survivors has garnered extensive media attention, raising public awareness about forced labor, its illegality under U.S. and international law, and its prevalence in Cuba’s overseas “medical missions.” Sam has litigated this case with tremendous intelligence, skill, and humanity.
About the Honoree
Samuel J. Dubbin, a principal in the law firm of Dubbin & Kravetz, LLP, practices in the areas of commercial, governmental, and human rights and international litigation. He served from 1993-1996 as Special Assistant to Attorney General Janet Reno and Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Policy Development in the Department of Justice, and later as Chief Counsel to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the Department of Transportation.
Since 1998, Mr. Dubbin has represented Holocaust survivors and heirs of Holocaust victims seeking to recover assets such as unpaid insurance policies and looted art, and to obtain adequate resources to for survivors’ health care needs. He has served as counsel to the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA since its founding in 2000. Dubbin & Kravetz was one of three firms that successfully litigated the Hungarian Gold Train case, garnering $25.5 million for food, medicine, and emergency services for Hungarian survivors worldwide. Rosner v. United States, 2005 WL 8155968 (S.D. Fla. Sept. 30, 2005). Mr. Dubbin has also represented survivors and heirs with claims against European insurance companies such as Assicurazioni Generali, S.p.A. and Allianz, that failed to honor policies sold to Jewish families prior to World War II, including federal litigation and several appearances before Congressional committees. Mr. Dubbin is also co-counsel to the Cassirer family of San Diego, CA, in litigation to recover a Pissarro masterpiece looted by the Nazis in 1939 and now in the possession of a museum owned by Spain. On April 21, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision awarding the painting to the museum, and remanded the case for application of California’s choice of law rules, as urged by the family. Cassirer v. Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation, 142 S.Ct. 1502 (2022).
Dubbin & Kravetz is one of three firms currently representing Cuban doctors in a landmark human rights federal class action against the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The suit alleges that PAHO knowingly benefited by serving as the financial intermediary between Brazil and Cuba, enabling Cuba to traffic thousands of doctors to Brazil in violation of the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act between 2013-2018. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg upheld the doctors’ complaint against PAHO’s legal immunity challenge, and the D.C. Circuit affirmed. Matos Rodriguez v. Pan American Health Organization, 29 F.4th 706 (D.C. Cir. 2022). The other firms representing the plaintiffs are Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca, LLP and Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, both based in Washington, D.C.