Sali A. Rakower’s areas of practice include complex commercial litigation, litigation involving foreign sovereigns and their state-owned subsidiaries, and litigation involving issues of international public law. Sali has appeared before U.S. federal and state courts, and courts in France and Switzerland. Some of her notable matters include:

• Representation of hedge fund in $1 billion derivative action arising from alleged scheme to divert corporate assets from New York Stock Exchange-traded Chinese company for benefit of corporate insiders;
• Representation of U.S. and foreign multinational corporations in matters involving the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), including internal investigations of potential violations of the FCPA, FCPA compliance programs and risk audits and assessments, and investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  Ms. Rakower led audit teams composed of other attorneys, forensic accountants and former FBI investigators around the world on compliance reviews and internal investigations for U.S. and multinational corporations;
• Representation of major French institutions in a series of civil, regulatory and criminal proceedings involving highly complicated cross-border business transactions, including representing Credit Lyonnais and Consortium de Realisation in a multibillion-dollar civil lawsuit stemming from the acquisition of high-yield securities of a failed California insurance company;
• Representation of the governments of Jordan and Iraq in various legal matters, including counseling the Iraqi government and conducting extensive research and analysis on issues relating to the UN Oil-for-Food scandal.

In 2002, Sali served in the Prosecutor’s Office of the U.N. International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Tanzania, where she assisted in the prosecution of former Rwandan military leaders for their role in the 1994 genocide.  Sali conducted interviews in Rwanda of both witnesses and former perpetrators of crimes and helped gather and prepare evidence for use at trial.

Sali served as the inaugural Director of the West Point Center for the Rule of Law from 2008-2009. From 2009-2020, she served as Senior Fellow of the Center.

Sali was a College Scholar at Cornell University and obtained her B.A. from the college in 1994. In 1999, she received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she served as the Executive Editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law.