Kathleen M. Kundar
Of counsel
Kathleen M. Kundar has handled business disputes relating to international transactions throughout her career. Her lawyering began as in house counsel with a major international grain corporation and continued with Fox Horan & Camerini LLP as a business and commercial litigator assisting clients from Europe, South America and Asia.
Ms. Kundar has deep experience with cross-border court cases, Many of the matters she has handled have involved purchases of commodities for physical delivery, performance bonds, letters of credit, promissory notes, loans, factoring agreements, guarantees and other instruments and business contracts as well as business breakups. Many of her cases have required obtaining injunctions or pre-judgment attachment of assets, a procedure which often is available under New York law to foreign defendants and when used successfully gives the client a true remedy.
Ms. Kundar was a senior member of the firm’s trial team that obtained a judgment for US $374 million on surety bonds covering a construction project for Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company. As in that case, her work often presents letters rogatory, concurrent proceedings in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions, conflicts of laws, procedural treaties and jurisdictional issues.
Besides being in court, the work of Ms. Kundar includes cross border arbitration. Her experience in the arbitration field began with her position as an in-house lawyer for Bunge Corporation, the international grain-exporting firm. Her experience has continued as to disputes involving bulk commodities as well as other commercial disputes. She not only has handled prosecution and defense of claims before the arbitrators but has also appeared in court to compel arbitration, enforce arbitration awards and handle other proceedings ancillary to arbitration.
Ms. Kundar frequently uses mediation to assist her non-U.S. clients to obtain a cost effective resolution of a dispute that enables them to go back to doing business together or to part with a compromise that is a win for both sides.
Resolution of disputes arising out of business and commercial matter has been Ms. Kundar’s staple. However, while attending law school in Washington, DC, Ms. Kundar worked in the General Counsel’s Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. As her international legal work evolved, she capitalized on this government experience to assist the firm’s non-U.S. clients with employment law matters as they established and grew subsidiaries and affiliates in New York and across the U.S. She represents management in employment disputes and in day-to-day advice on discipline, discharge, downsizing, confidentiality, non-competition and other matters involved in the employer-employee relationship. Since her specialty is litigation, her advice to our employment clients is focused on what conduct leads to the courtroom and how the employer can avoid being there. Should a client nevertheless be sued on an employment matter, she vigorously defends.
Ms. Kundar was selected to Super Lawyers , 2010 – 2011, 2013 – 2023.
“Res Judicata and Collateral Estoppel (a/k/a Claim Preclusion and Issue Preclusion),” in International Aspects of U.S. Litigation, a Practioner’s Deskbook, Vol 2, 691 – 735, 2017.
Co-presenter, “Labor & Employment Law Trends in the U.S. and Mexico,” New York, 2019.
Presenter, “Plaintiffs Have Maxed Out Their Forum Shopping Card,” Jurisdiction CLE, New York, 2014.
Presenter, “Litigation, Arbitration and Mediation – Focus on Latin America,” Brazilian LLM students, Fordham University School of Law, New York 2014.
Presenter, “Litigation, Arbitration and Mediation,” Beijing Elite Chinese Legal Alliance (ECLA), New York 2014.
Presenter, “The U.S. Business Partner’s Mindset: Structuring Joint Ventures in Latin America from the Outside Investor’s Perspective,” International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA), Latin American Conference, Lima, Peru, 2011.
“Freeze With Ease: New York Orders of Attachment and Non-U.S. Parties,” The International Litigation Quarterly, Summer 2008, Section of Litigation, American Bar Association.
Presenter, “Foreign Sovereign Immunity and the Act of State Doctrine,” Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), Winter Seminar Colorado, 2006.
Presenter, “Enforcement of Foreign Money Judgments in New York: Non-Recognition Grounds and Expedited Court Procedures,” Hamilton, Ontario Law Association Seminar, 2005.