Mr. Krinsky graduated from the University of Chicago's College in 1965 and from its Law School in 1968. After working with the American Civil Liberties Union, he joined the Firm in 1971, became a principal in 1976 and a name principal in 1978.
Foreign Governments, Their Agencies and Enterprises
Mr. Krinsky has long spearheaded the Firm's representation of Cuba and its agencies and enterprises. He has worked continuously on Cuba matters since first joining the Firm in 1971. The Firm has represented Cuba in all its legal matters pertaining to the United States since 1960. It is Cuba's only U.S. counsel.
Mr. Krinsky has represented the Cuban government, its central bank, telephone company and other enterprises in landmark litigation.
He advises the Cuban Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Foreign Commerce, Ministry of Culture and other ministries on U.S.-related legal matters.
Mr. Krinsky has assisted Cuban enterprises with transactional matters in all the permissible areas of travel and commerce with the United States. These include Alimport (billion-dollar trade in agricultural and food imports); CIMAB, S.A. (licensing of Cuban biomedical products for clinical trials and marketing); CIMEX (family remittances); ETECSA and EMTECUBA (telecommunications); Editora Musical de Cuba, EGREM, and Artex (Cuban music publishing, recorded music and artists' representation); Agencia Literaria Latinoamericana (literary works), Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales (art), ICAIC (film), and ICRT (television).
Mr. Krinsky defended President Aristide of Haiti in the courts of the United States; recovered Haiti state assets looted by the Duvaliers; represented Nicaragua in nationalization litigation; worked with his partner, Eric Lieberman, in representing Iran's central bank (Bank Markazi Iran) in nationwide litigation and helping craft the Algerian Declarations during the Iran-U.S. confrontation of 1979-81; represented, with Leonard B. Boudin, one of the Firm's founders, officials of the PLO's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in litigation that blocked the U.S. government's efforts to close the Mission pursuant to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987; and worked with Victor Rabinowitz, the Firm's other founder, in representing Chile during the Allende years.
Much of Mr. Krinsky's work in the international field has concerned sensitive and highly contentious issues, such as United States economic sanctions; State-to-State disputes; the nationalization of U.S.-owned, and domestically-owned, businesses; sovereign immunity; "Head of State" immunity; the act of state doctrine; the attachment of assets in litigation; U.S. government programs freezing the assets of sanctioned countries; and the protection of state enterprises.
In litigation culminating in the Supreme Court decision First National City Bank v. Banco Para el Comercio Exterior de Cuba (the Bancec case), Mr. Krinsky established the principle that foreign state enterprises may not, with narrow exception, be held responsible for the debts and obligations of the foreign state. Appellate and trial courts have applied Bancec in scores of cases involving many different countries. Bancec is essential for state-owned enterprises to maintain trade and financial relations with the United States. Without its protection, these enterprises would be subject to disruptive and potentially crippling attachments and legal judgments based on the unrelated acts of the foreign state.
In Alejandre v. Republic of Cuba, Mr. Krinsky successfully relied on Bancec to protect telecommunication payments owed the Cuban telephone company by AT&T, MCI and others from seizure by parties with substantial default judgments against the Republic of Cuba.
In Banco Nacional de Cuba v. Chase Manhattan Bank, Mr. Krinsky and Victor Rabinowitz convinced the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that international law does not support the traditional "Hull Doctrine" of full and immediate compensation espoused by the U.S. State Department. Chase is the leading U.S. judicial decision on the question of compensation for nationalized property under international law.
In Lafontant v. Aristide, Mr. Krinsky successfully represented President Aristide of Haiti, then in exile, in asserting "Head of State" immunity to defeat a lawsuit for the alleged assassination of a coup leader. The case remains the leading U.S. precedent for "Head of State" immunity.
U.S. Economic Sanctions Programs
In the area of U.S. economic sanctions programs, Mr. Krinsky has assisted numerous U.S. and third-country clients - corporations, foundations, universities, associations and individuals - cope with U.S. restrictions on transactions with targeted countries. Mr. Krinsky litigated the case that established an exemption for art from the U.S.'s embargo programs (Ashton v. Newcomb ). On behalf of a U.S. civil liberties organization, he drafted the 1994 Congressional legislation that exempted the Internet, television broadcasts and other electronic transmissions of informational material from the U.S.'s embargo programs. Mr. Krinsky represents Marazul Charters, the oldest U.S. charter and travel company specializing in travel to Cuba.
Mr. Krinsky's book, UNITED STATES ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST CUBA: PROCEEDINGS IN THE UNITED NATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW ISSUES (Michael Krinsky & David Golove eds., Alethia Press 1993), supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, was praised by both the American Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs . It grew out of Mr. Krinsky's work on the first U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
Intellectual Property
Mr. Krinsky is currently representing the Cuban cigar company, Cubatabaco, in its fight for the U.S. rights to the world-famous COHIBA trademark. In that case, the Firm has established important precedent recognizing the "well-known marks" doctrine, which protects foreign companies against attempts by United States competitors to establish priority of right in well-known foreign marks through first registration or use in the United States. In a case involving HAVANA CLUB, Mr. Krinsky established that a U.S. embargo on trade excuses foreign mark holders from the use requirements of U.S. trademark law.
Constitutional Litigation
Mr. Krinsky's work in the field of constitutional litigation has often focused on U.S. government efforts to interfere with international contacts. He established the precedent holding the CIA liable for opening the foreign correspondence of U.S. citizens without judicial warrant (Birnbaum v. United States; Lamont v. United States ); successfully defended a leading U.S. journal on Latin America against Internal Revenue Service efforts to revoke its tax-exempt status because of alleged "bias" in favor of radical Latin American governments and movements (In Re NACLA, North American Congress on Latin America ); successfully challenged, with Mr. Boudin, Congressional prohibitions on establishing an information office in the U.S. at the behest of the PLO (Mendelsohn v. Meese ); and challenged the United States' continuing its ban on travel to Cuba after the end of the Cold War (Freedom to Travel Campaign v. Newcomb ).
Mr. Krinsky worked with Mr. Boudin in the defense of Dr. Daniel Ellsberg against "national security" criminal charges for releasing the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department's secret history of the Vietnam War (United States v. Ellsberg and Russo ). He brought numerous "taxpayer" lawsuits against the Vietnam War, and, with the Firm's Eric Lieberman, represented several members of Congress in other challenges to the War. Mr. Krinsky's numerous other constitutional cases include his representation of the National Lawyers Guild in its lawsuit against the FBI for decades of covert surveillance and disruption of that lawyers' organization (National Lawyers Guild v. Attorney General ).
Mr. Krinsky, along with Eric Lieberman, is General Counsel to the Bill of Rights Foundation and was General Counsel to the National Emergency Civil Liberties Union for many years. He is a member of the American Society of International Law, International Trademark Association and the National Lawyers Guild, which he served as chair of its international law committee and president of its New York City chapter.
