David W. Bowker chairs the firm’s International Litigation Practice and has a wealth of commercial litigation and arbitration experience representing US and foreign companies, multi-nationals, foreign states, international organizations and nonprofit organizations before international arbitration tribunals, state and federal trial courts, courts of appeal, and the US Supreme Court. He is also an active member of the firm’s International Arbitration Group, Trial Group, and Government and Regulatory Litigation Group.
Mr. Bowker has litigated high-stakes cases in US federal and state courts for nearly 20 years. In Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc., 570 U.S. 205, Mr. Bowker argued and won a landmark First Amendment decision in the US Supreme Court on behalf of dozens of public health organizations in the successful challenge of an unconstitutional “pledge” requirement that the US government sought to impose as a condition of federal funding to fight HIV/AIDS overseas.
Mr. Bowker’s ongoing matters include the representation of a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer Genentech in a purported mass action brought under the Anti-Terrorism Act and various state laws on behalf of US servicemembers wounded or killed in the Iraq War; a leading US financial institution in a massive takings claim against Cuba, as certified by the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission; a leading US oil and gas drilling company in complex US litigation against Venezuela for an unlawful expropriation under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act; The Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian against Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps for hostage-taking and torture under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act; an international organization in US litigation brought by Cuban doctors claiming violations of US law in connection with the largest public health program ever administered by a UN agency; The Metropolitan Museum of Art in US litigation involving a Nazi-era claim to a masterpiece painting by Pablo Picasso; and numerous other clients in complex, cross-border disputes.
Mr. Bowker teaches international law and dispute resolution as an adjunct professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law and Georgetown University Law School. He serves on the US Department of State’s Advisory Committee on Private International Law. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Society of International Law, the American Bar Association, and the International Bar Association. He is a board member of the nonprofit Hostage US.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Bowker served as the Attorney-Adviser for the Law of Armed Conflict in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the US Department of State. Prior to that, he served as a graduate intern on the National Security Council staff.
Updated Sep 2024
