Donald T. Fox
Of counsel
Mr. Fox was a litigator in a large Wall Street law firm. After founding the firm in 1968, his practice expanded to the representation of foreign firms exporting, licensing technology, and acquiring businesses in the United States, as well as advising American companies doing business abroad.
Mr. Fox was a litigator in a large Wall Street law firm when the establishment of the European Economic Community caused U.S. corporations to think about acquiring a European foothold to avoid potential trade barriers.
On the basis of his two law degrees from the University of Paris and familiarity with local customs, he was assigned to represent U.S. clients in the acquisition of European companies and the financing of foreign projects. Since he also spoke Spanish, which was not at the time common among New York lawyers, he began to represent U.S. companies in Latin America.
After founding the firm in 1968, his practice expanded to the representation of foreign firms exporting, licensing technology, and acquiring businesses in the United States, as well as advising American companies doing business abroad.
Mr. Fox taught comparative law at New York University Law School and for ten years served on its Board of Trustees, with oversight responsibility for the foreign law institutes. As Chairman of the American Association for the International Commission of Jurists, he has conducted missions and written reports on the judicial systems of foreign countries, from Hungary to Colombia. He is a life trustee of the American Bar Foundation, a sustaining life member of the American Law Institute and a member of many organizations involved in foreign affairs, including the Council on Foreign Relations, the Council of the Americas, and the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce. He has chaired committees of the Association of the Bar of New York City, including the Finance Committee, the Committee on Professional Responsibility, and the Committee on the Lawyers’ role in the Search for Peace. This experience, together with two terms as President of the New York University Law Alumni Association and as President of the University’s federation of alumni associations, has provided a good knowledge of local conditions in New York City.
Mr. Fox has represented leading corporations in diverse geographical regions, including:
- Brazil: Globalstar do Brasil, Finacorp Brasil, BRAEMP, Petrobras
- France: ANF Industrie, Usinor, Onduline, S.A., Michelin, Entreprise Gagneraud, père et fils, Total Energie, Petrofina
- Germany: Bank fur Gemeinwirtschaft
- Switzerland: Julius Baer Group AG, Darier, Hentsch & Cie.
- Italy: Comus S.p.A. – Bontempi, Illycaffe S.p.A.
- Japan: Nippon Steel, Auburn Steel, Ataka Trading Co.
- Mexico: Minera Mexico
- U.S.: Nabisco, International Telephone & Telegraph, Becton Dickinson, General Mills
- Nicaragua: Mercon Coffee Group
- Sulphur Export Corporation
Bar Admission: New York, 1957; D.C. 1968
Court Admissions: U.S. District Court (S.D.N.Y. and E.D.N.Y.) 1960, U.S. Court of Appeals (2nd cir.) 1960, U.S. Tax Court 1973; U.S. Court of Claims, 1980
Military Experience: Cadet Commanding Officer, Harvard R.O.T.C. Battalion 1950; 2d Lt-1st Lt, U.S.A.F. 1951-53.
Public Service Organizations: Palazzo Te, Mantova, Italy, Committee of Honor, Giulio Romano Exhibition, 1989. Humanitarian Foundation for Nicaragua, 1991-6. N.Y.U. Law Alumni Association, President 1971-3. Alumni Federation, N.Y.U. President 1983-5. United States Institute of Peace, Project on Constitution Making, Peace Building, and National Reconciliation, 2008-10. Council on Foreign Relations, Elected Member, 1973 to date; INCAE, Central American Graduate School of Business Administration, President’s Advisory Council 2011 to date. Save Venice, Inc., Board of Directors and Chairman, Legal Committee, 2000-2010. American-Swiss Foundation, Board of Directors 2010-2014; Association Parque de Cristo (Monaco) President du Conseil d’Administration 2012 to date. Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Committee on History and Theory 1990-1995. Washington Square Legal Services, Inc. 1974-85. Trustee, N.Y.U. Law Center Foundation 1975-86.
Professional Organizations: American Law Institute, Life member; American Bar Foundation, Life Fellow; American Association, International Commission of Jurists, Executive Committee, Board of Directors 1970 to date, Chairman 1991 to date; Association of the Bar of the City of New York: Chairman, Committee on Lawyers Role in the Search for Peace 1969-71, Chairman, Committee on Audit 1978-80, Treasurer, 1982-84, Chairman, Committee on Professional Responsibility 1971-74, Chairman Finance Committee 1982-84.
International Commission of Jurists, Geneva, Switzerland:
El Salvador – The Application of the November 1977 Law of Defense and Guaranty of Public Order (1978) – published in Spanish, French and English
Guatemala – Human Rights in Guatemala (1979)-published in English and Spanish.
Colombia – Violencia en Colombia – published by Comision Andina de Juristas, Lima, Peru, May 1990.
Human Rights and Foreign Policy (The Hague 1980)
Hungarían Constitutional Reform and the Rule of Law (with Andrea Bonime-Blanc 1993). Also published under the title A Magyar Alkotmányreform és A Jogá LLamisag (Budapest) and distributed to the Hungarian legal profession by the Soros Foundation.
American Association for the International Commission of Jurists:
Human Rights & Foreign Policy, The Role of Government (Report of Colloquium held in Madrid with human rights officials of eighteen Governments (1986)
Ethiopia – “National & Regional Elections Scheduled for May 7, 1995”. See also interview, Ethiopian Register, June 1995, pp. 45-48, by Selamawit Gherimu (1995)
Nicaragua – “Elections of October 20, 1996 in Perspective” (1997)
Mexico – “The Elections of July 6th, 1997 in Historical Perspective”.
Nicaragua, Presidential Election of March 4, 2001
Nicaragua, Presidential Election of November 4, 2006
American Bar Association: Standing Committee on World Order Under Law:
Joint Meeting with the Puerto Rico Bar Association March 1-4, 1976, San Juan, P.R. “Human Rights in the World Today”
Joint Meeting with the Virgin Island Bar Association March 5, 1976, St. Thomas V.I.“Multinational Companies and Developing Nations”
Joint Meeting with the Barra Mexicana, Colegio de Abogados February 23-26, 1977 “The Panama Canal – Issues And Directions”
“Les Etats Unis et La conference du Bandoeng”, Centre des Etudes de Politique Etrangère, Conference Document 2-A (1957).
“Les Lois Antitrust aux Etats Unis et en France – Une Etude Comparée” (1960), Thesis on file in the library of l’Institut de Droit Compare, Université de Paris.
“Les Investissements Americains en France”, distributed at conference given at College des Sciences Sociales et Economiques (Paris 1965).
“L’Avocat a un Role de Chef d’Orhcestre”, French-American Chamber of Commerce bulletin (Winter 1983).
“The Law of Adverse Possession in New York”, Richard Prize law note, published serially in Real Estate News, (1955).
“Conciliation of International Economic Disputes”, World Peace Through Law – The Athens Conference (West Publishing Company 1964).
“Premerger Negotiations with the Department of Justice”, 50 American Bar Association Journal 257 (1964).
“Protection of Human Rights Through the Inter-American System”, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Volume 44, No. 3 (Summer 1968).
“Doctrinal Development in the Americas: From Non-Intervention to Collective Support for Human Rights”, N.Y.U. Journal of International Law and Politics, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1968).
“The Protection of Human Rights in the Americas” The Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Volume 7, No. 2 (1969).
“Extraterritorial Procedure and Enforcement of the Antitrust Laws of the United States and of the Communities and Member States”, (Co-author), Common Market and American Antitrust – Overlap and Conflict (McGraw Hill 1970).
“Behaving Responsibly: The Role of the Bar” 2 Learning and Law 51 (1975).
“Legal Issues of Foreign Involvement in Latin America” Saint Louis University Public Law Review Volume VI, Number one (1987).
“The Future of Guatemala”, The Christian Century, Vol. 99, No. 20 (1982).
“Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Finds United States in Violation”,The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 82, No. 3 (July 1988).
“Les Aspects Juridiques, Administratifs et Pratiques de l’Implantation de Petites et Moyennes Entreprises aux Etats-Unis” (Barreau de Paris 1979).
“Interview With Editor”,Ethiopian Register, Special Report, June, 1995.
“The American Convention of Human Rights and Prospects for United States Ratification”, Human Rights, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Fall 1973); also published in Hearings, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on International Organizations and Movements 93rd Cong., 2nd Session (1974).
“The Practice of Law by Foreign Attorneys in New York”, Report to Bar Associations on the establishment of legal status for foreign legal consultants, (March 22, 1967).
“Abuses Against Civilians by Counterrevolutionaries operating in Nicaragua”, Report to International Human Rights Law Group and Washington Office on Latin America (with Michael Glenn) (April 1985); also published in Hearing, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs, 99th Cong., 1st Session (1988).
“The 1991 Constitutional Reform: Prospects for Democracy and the Rule of Law in Colombia (with Anne Stetson), Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, Vol. 24, No. 2 (1992).
“Cuba: Considerations of a future constitution-making process” (with Eduardo Tabío), The Endowment for Cuban American Studies, (1991).
“Lessons of the Colombian Constitutional Reform of 1991”, with Anne Stetson and Gustavo Gallon-Giraldo, published in Framing the State in Times of Transition – Case Studies in Constitution Making, Chapter 17 (United States Institute of Peace) (2000).
Editor, The Cambodian Incursion … Legal Issues, (Proceedings of the Fifteenth Hammarskjold Forum, Oceana Publications 1971).
Editor, The Role of Law in Population Planning, (Proceedings of the Sixteenth Hammarskjold Forum, Oceana Publications 1972).
Symposia:
The American in a Changing World: Report of the Commission on U.S.-Latin American Relations, Center for Inter-American Relations (with Rita Hauser and Eugene L. Stockwell, February 11, 1975)
Professional Responsibility of the Lawyer: The Murky Divide between Right and Wrong (Association of the Bar of the City of N.Y. 1976)
Professional Responsibility in Tax Practice; Professional Responsibility with Practice of Corporate Law; Professional Responsibility in the Practice of Commercial Law ( Association of the Bar of the City of New York (1974), printed in Hofstra Law Review.
Book Reviews:
Roche, The Criminal Mind, 34 N.Y.U. L. Rev.1340 (1959).
Stevens and Yamey, The Restrictive Practices Court: Judicial Process and Economic Policy, New York Law Journal (April 27, 1966).
Clark, U N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and OAS Secretariat, The Organization of American States and Human Rights, 6 Journal of Int’l Law & Politics 573 (1973).
Merryman and Clark, Comparative Law: Western European and Latin American Legal Systems, 11 Journal of Int’l Law & Politics, No. 3 (1979).