Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 23 began whispering to him. Amsterdam still remembers vividly the time he planned to travel to Kishinev, Moldova, to try to get into a trial involving Soviet Jews (along with meeting a beautiful woman and drinking the country's wine). American consular officials in Leningrad — now Saint Petersburg — tried to stop him by telling him they would no longer protect him, "which only excited me all the more," he says. Although Amsterdam wanted to teach political science, a nudge from his older sister, Judy, set him in a different direction. She suggested he pursue law. Although he didn't do well on his LSAT, he got into Queen's University days before the start of school. Even then the draw of travel kept him away from Kings- ton, Ont. so much of the time that his class presented him with a graduation gift: a postcard of the city that he rarely visited. The lure of exploring other countries and learning about their political systems attracted Amsterdam to international law and kept him interested over the past decades. "I think the creativity of it and the ethereal nature, the fact that it blends law, politics and sociology together is what I find terribly exciting." He credits his early love of travel for keeping him feeling at home in some of the most difficult places in the world, including many developing nations where he continues to work. His firm helps businesses navigate emerging markets, identify their pol- itical risk and insulate them against civil suits and criminal char- ges. Despite not being licensed to practise law in most of those countries, his extensive experience and good local contacts help to protect his clients from the many pitfalls that can accompany working in countries where there's not always a clear line between the legal and political. Unlike larger firms that he says will go into a country using internationally recognized lawyers who graduated from some of the world's top universities, he prefers to hire local lawyers on the ground — people familiar with the area's customs and culture. The lawyers he hires may not always have the most clean-cut reputation, he says, but they're the ones who get results. "I want someone who doesn't speak English. I want someone who is not internationally connected to other foreigners … I want to know what's happening on the ground. I want an old criminal lawyer. I often tell my clients, if he has a full set of teeth, I don't want him." Amsterdam's job is rife with dangers, many of which he's faced. To help ensure his safety, he inserts a clause in each contract stating that he can spend money on personal security. While he was acting as international counsel to Russian billionaire and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was convicted of fraud and tax evasion in the mid-2000s, Amsterdam was almost arrested by Russian Federal Security Service officers in the middle of the night. The case drew international attention in part because it illustrated to the world the true ruthlessness of Vladmir Putin, because, as Amsterdam points out, the charges were person- ally and politically motivated. During an appeal of the charges, Amsterdam's visa was revoked and he is banned from the country. Despite this ban, Amsterdam has kept abreast of the current political climate in the U.S., where accusations of Russian inter- ference in the American presidential election and cyberattacks are rampant. He calls the current FBI investigation "just the tip of the iceberg." It was the Khodorkovsky case that led Amsterdam to get involved with representing the pro-government Red Shirts in Thailand after the 2006 military coup overthrew the government and Abhisit Vejjajiva was appointed the country's prime minis- ter. The 2010 Bangkok massacre ultimately resulted in murder charges against Abhisit and his deputy prime minister, which were then dismissed in a controversial decision in 2014. While representing the Red Shirts, Amsterdam was arrested, detained and released every time he went into the southeast Asian country. He even came under investigation for defaming the king, which, he says, could have involved a lengthy jail sentence. "When I look back, I don't know how the hell I had the balls to keep going in and out of the country," he says. It was his work with the Red Shirts that caught the attention of Turkey's president, Erdoğan, and launched the Gülen movement investigation. Despite the danger that has accompanied some of his most high-profile cases, it was actually one of his firm's pro bono cases that he says almost killed him. It was "wildly expensive," mentally exhausting and pushed him to the brink of burnout. At the time, he was representing Georges Tadonki, who headed the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Zimbabwe. Tadonki was fired by the UN after he exposed a coverup during Zimbabwe's cholera epidemic in 2008 and 2009. After a decades-long career that has taken him to many places where the rule of law is often flawed at best, Amsterdam's biggest fear isn't the threat of being a victim of crime, foreign govern- ments or police. "I'm much more fearful of being locked behind a desk on Bay Street than I am being in a small town in the Congo." What do your clients need? The means to move on. Guaranteed ™ . Baxter Structures customizes personal injury settlements into tax-free annuities that can help your clients be secure for life. Need more information? Contact us at 1 800 387 1686 or baxterstructures.com Kyla A. Baxter, CSSC PRESIDENT, BAXTER STRUCTURES ntitled-3 1 2017-11-01 3:58 PM

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