Thomas H. Lee

Thomas H. Lee is Special Counsel in Hughes Hubbard & Reed’s New York office and the Leitner Family Professor of International Law at Fordham Law School. He has litigated petitions, appeals and dispositive motions in the U.S. Supreme Court, other federal courts, and New York state courts; advised U.S. and other non-Korean companies on doing business and investing in Korea; advised the U.S. and foreign governments on international law; has expertise and experience in international commercial and investor-state arbitration; and has litigated and advised private and government clients on data protection and cyberlaw. He has written dozens of articles about international law, U.S. foreign relations law, constitutional law, and federal courts. He has also been a visiting law professor at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Virginia; U.S. law adviser to the Constitutional Court of Korea; and Special Counsel to the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense, for which he received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service. Before joining the firm, he served as a law clerk to Justice David Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge Michael Boudin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and as a U.S. naval cryptology officer deployed in the Western Pacific Ocean and ashore in Korea and Japan and with the National Security Agency. 

• Representation of U.S applicant for export license of educational materials to Syria
• Lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Corporate Transparency Act
• Representation of Ukrainian parties in investor-state arbitration and follow-on litigation 
• Representation of defendant in civil lawsuit in federal court alleging cyber hacking 
• Representation of defendant in the appeal of an SEC enforcement action
• Representation of Korean multinational creditor in Pacific Gas & Electric Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings
• Representation of foreign defendant in litigation in U.S. court for trademark infringement 
• Petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the applicability of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 to social-media data
• Amicus curiae brief on behalf of U.S. Chamber of Commerce in appeal regarding federal preemption of state tort law
• Pro bono representation of tenants in New York state court, resulting in sizable settlements for clients