International litigator Deborah Sturman represents European institutional investors in securities actions and advises them in connection with their legal portfolio management. In addition, she represents European institutional investors in complex, international litigation in U.S. courts.
Sturman has, since the early 1990s, represented European businesses and institutional investors in connection with their United States interests, as well as represented Holocaust survivors and their heirs seeking restitution of real property in the former East Germany “Aryanized” during World War II. Sturman initiated the first class actions in U.S. courts on behalf of victims of WWII slave labour, representing the class in In re Holocaust Victim Assets Litigation (the Swiss banks case), and leading to recoveries of approximately $5 billion. She was appointed by the governor of California to the California Holocaust Era Insurance Oversight Committee.
Sturman has been profiled in The Wall Street Journal, Handelsblatt and Financial Times for her innovative lawyering and was named runner-up Lawyer of the Year by The National Law Journal. In 2012, Sturman was appointed to the Board of Directors of United Capital Ltd., headquartered in London, and to the Supervisory Board of Novis Insurance S.A. in Bratislava. She was a featured speaker at 2007 Finance Dublin and is a key speaker at the Lippers/Reuters Compliance Talks tour in Europe. As a legal commentator, Sturman regularly appears in the German, Dutch, French, Swiss and Belgian media, as well as on numerous international and national continuing legal education panels for complex and international litigation. In addition, Sturman has contributed as a legal columnist for Manager Magazin, Wirtschaftswoche and Dow Jones. She is fluent in German and Dutch/Flemish and conversant in both French and Italian.
After completing a Prix D’Excellence at the Royal Brussels Conservatory of Music in Belgium, Sturman received a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is licensed to practice in California, New York and Washington, D.C.
