H. Barry Vasios is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group of Holland & Knight's New York City office. He was admitted to the bar in 1973 and has practiced as a commercial litigator since then. He has handled cases involving antitrust, securities, contract, legal malpractice, reinsurance, trusts and estates and environmental law issues, as well as ICC, AAA, and ad hoc arbitrations and SEC investigations.
He clerked for the late Judge Arnold Bauman in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Some significant matters he has worked on include:
- Successful representation of a foreign government in dissolving a temporary restraining order which froze the government’s assets in U.S. in a proceeding to enforce a foreign arbitral award.
- Successful representation of an international law firm in a dispute with a former partner who claimed the right to certain payments for the remainder of his lifetime.
- Successful representation of national intellectual property law firm in AAA arbitration involving claims of misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition and related claim of malpractice asserted in a Federal lawsuit.
- Representation of a foreign manufacturing company in connection with a criminal price-fixing investigation conducted by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department.
- Successful representation of a leading New York law firm in the defense of a third party claim brought by an accounting firm which was a defendant in a 10b-5 action. He also represented that law firm in a malpractice case which he tried to judgment, and won. That judgment was affirmed on appeal.
- Successful representation of the owner of a bankrupt corporation against claims of fraud and breach of an environmental indemnity agreement in a trial in Federal Bankruptcy Court. The decision was affirmed on appeal.
- Representation of a foreign client in the defense of a 10b-5 action arising out of the sale of a business. That case, which settled before trial, also involved companion arbitrations before the ICC in Paris and the AAA in New York.
- Successful representation of the Government of Dubai, which was sued in the Southern District of New York on claims that certain creditors were unfairly treated in Dubai bankruptcy proceedings. A motion to dismiss on foreign sovereign immunity grounds, denied by the trial judge, was granted by the Second Circuit.
- Representation of Rolls Royce PLC as a secured creditor in the bankruptcies of Eastern Airlines and TWA.
- Representation of the foreign receivers of two bankrupt Finnish reinsurance companies in ancillary proceedings in federal bankruptcy court in New York which were concluded successfully.
- Representation of foreign reinsurance company in arbitration and commutation matters.
- Representation of the seller of an insurance company in connection with a post-closing price adjustment arbitration, which settled after several days of hearings.
- He successfully tried a case on behalf of the beneficiaries of a trust who sought invasions of principal from the trust, where the trustees had absolute and uncontrolled discretion to grant or deny such invasions requests.
- He successfully defended at trial a claim that a constructive trust be imposed on stock in a closely held corporation.
- Successful defense of a foreign law firm in a third party action claiming malpractice involved in the recovery of art stolen by the Nazis.