Jim Boykin Argues Before the DC Circuit to Uphold Enforcement of $156 Million Arbitration Against India

Law360 reported on Jim Boykin’s appellate argument before a District of Columbia Circuit panel that India’s motion to dismiss on the basis of sovereign immunity in a $156 million arbitration enforcement proceeding failed to raise any colorable argument of immunity and therefore the District Court did not err in refusing to allow India a second opportunity to present its defenses against enforcement.

The firm is representing German telecommunications provider Deutsche Telekom in an appeal by the government of India against the enforcement of an award, following India’s breach of its 1995 bilateral investment treaty with Germany by canceling a satellite spectrum contract.

The appeal follows a ruling in March 2024 where Deutsche Telekom successfully obtained confirmation of the award in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, with District Judge Richard J. Leon emphatically concluding his memorandum opinion with the statement “Enough is enough!”

India is arguing the federal judge wrongly denied it the chance to brief merits defenses against the award after finding that India’s motion to dismiss failed to raise any colorable immunity claim and proceeding to confirm the award without a second round of briefing on the same merits defenses. The argument sparked discussion among the three-judge panel about how to determine what is a colorable claim for immunity.

In his argument, Boykin cited two decisions made by the DC Circuit — Chevron Corp. v. Ecuador in 2015 and LLC SPC Stileks v. Republic of Moldova in 2021 — to illustrate that the defenses India is pressing aren’t valid immunity arguments. Boykin argued that there’s no indication that India is questioning the Chevron or Stileks decisions, and pointed out that those cases were applied in a major DC Circuit ruling in August. “Those are settled,” he said during his argument. “These arguments weren’t colorable under the very low threshold.”

Later, Boykin and Malik Havalic, who is also part of the Hughes Hubbard team representing Deutsche Telekom, told Law360 they were “pleased and impressed by the court’s evident level of preparation and engagement with the key issues in the case; they have identified the deficiencies in India’s arguments, and we are hopeful they will rule accordingly.”

Headquartered in Bonn, Germany, Deutsche Telekom is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue.

The Hughes Hubbard team representing Deutsche Telekom includes Boykin, Havalic, Shayda Vance, Michael Rodríguez Martínez, Carter Rosekrans and Winthrop Jordan.