Elliot Magruder

Elliot Magruder is a New York litigation attorney and a member of Holland & Knight's Litigation and Dispute Resolution and Asset Recovery Practices. He has experience in all aspects of the litigation process, including in bench and jury trials, and routinely appears in federal and state court. Mr. Magruder regularly appears in matters involving cross-border litigation, including in disputes concerning foreign country judgment enforcement, asset recovery, foreign discovery matters (including under 28 U.S.C. § 1782), Bankruptcy Code Chapters 11 and 15 main actions and related adversary proceedings, and disputes concerning cryptocurrency.

Mr. Magruder represents international and domestic creditors, including multiple litigation funders, European and South American banks, and participants to foreign proceedings around the world, in numerous enforcement and insolvency cases. Mr. Magruder also represents liquidators and other court-appointed representatives appointed in foreign insolvency proceedings in Europe, Asia, South America and multiple offshore jurisdictions. Mr. Magruder's practice also entails cooperation with foreign counsel in numerous jurisdictions around the world in conjunction with joint representations. Mr. Magruder is a sought-after speaker at asset recovery and insolvency conferences throughout the world.

Mr. Magruder's representative matters include:

• counsel to the Cayman Islands-based liquidators of a collapsed New York-based hedge fund formerly with assets under management in excess of $1 billion in multiple litigations, which included prevailing in a three-week jury trial held in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York holding one of the fund's principals liable for breach of fiduciary duty, and defeating a motion to dismiss in Delaware Chancery Court in action involving hedge fund service providers
• counsel to the Middle Eastern affiliate of a software company in connection with the multijurisdictional enforcement of a $60 million arbitral award and certain guarantees, including in federal bankruptcy and district courts, and prevailing in three federal and state court appeals
• counsel to a litigation funder in award and judgment enforcement and conspiracy actions pending in multiple jurisdictions, including New York, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom, in which his team obtained a denial of a motion to dismiss from multiple parties, and ultimately a sizable settlement
• counsel to the offshore investors in Chapter 15 proceeding involving a Cayman Islands liquidation of an entity connected to the collapse of a U.S. bank
• counsel to an investment fund in connection with a highly contested 28 U.S.C. § 1782 discovery application in support of Luxembourg criminal proceedings and obtaining favorable federal appeals court decisions in the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second Circuit and Eleventh Circuit
• counsel to a defrauded investor in natural gas wells and obtaining judgment on all counts following a three-week federal bench trial
• counsel to an investment fund in New York-based enforcement proceedings against instrumentalities of a foreign state and obtaining recovery to date of multiple millions of dollars
• counsel to a European investment fund in 28 U.S.C. § 1782 proceeding in the Southern District of New York spanning nearly a decade and obtaining plenary discovery for use in Cyprus proceedings
• counsel to a Cayman Island-based liquidator in hotly contested parallel proceedings in district court and bankruptcy court involving allegations of fraud by governmental authorities
• counsel to the foreign representative of a Jersey-based (Channel Islands) investment fund, and obtaining one of the first-known recognitions of a voluntary liquidation in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York
• counsel in a Chapter 15 recognition action to voluntary liquidators in Guernsey insolvency proceeding and obtaining emergency discovery relief
• counsel to a Hong Kong-based investment fund in enforcing a judgment and securing an attachment over intangible property valued at more than $25 million

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Magruder worked in the sports industry, including in positions at ESPN and on both the management and labor sides of multiple professional sports organizations.