Polina Iziumova

Polina Iziumova is a foreign-licensed attorney at Marks & Sokolov, based in the firm’s Philadelphia office. She focuses on high-stakes international litigation and cross-border disputes, with particular experience in both public and private international law.  Ms. Iziumova assists in representing clients in complex, multibillion-dollar matters, including disputes involving Russian law in U.S. courts and international arbitration proceedings. She has contributed significantly to major cases through her legal research, strategic analysis and drafting skills.

Ms. Iziumova earned her LL.M. from The George Washington University Law School in 2024, with a concentration in International Arbitration and Dispute Settlement, where she was awarded the Thomas Buergenthal Scholarship. She received her LL.B. from Kutafin Moscow State Law University in 2023.  During law school, she won the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in Russia in both 2022 and 2023.

Languages: Russian (native), English (fluent), French (intermediate), Ukrainian (reading and listening comprehension)

Experience in Litigation and Arbitration:

• Assisted in drafting legal memoranda on sovereign immunity, jurisdictional defenses, and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) for a sovereign client in a U.S. Supreme Court cultural property case.
• Supported the preparation of multiple briefs in an international arbitration enforcement action valued at approximately $5 billion, analyzing bilateral investment treaties, energy-sector agreements and jurisdictional objections in U.S. courts.
• Contributed legal research and argument development in a U.S. district court case defending a global media company against a preliminary injunction, focusing on U.S. sanctions and forum selection clauses.
• Participated in preparing an advisory memorandum related to a U.S. District Court case involving enforcement of an arbitral award by a foreign financial institution, analyzing issues of public international law and armed conflict affecting multimillion-dollar claims.

Legal Research and Advisory Work

• Conducted in-depth research on private and public international law for high-value disputes, including treaty obligations, public policy defenses, comparative law and U.S. legal principles.
• Researched global human rights compliance for an international NGO (2023–2024), drafting advocacy reports for submission to global human rights forums.
• Analyzed trade and investment disputes at a global legal research institute (2022–2023), drafting reports on reforms at the Eurasian Economic Court and assisting with UN investor-state dispute settlement documentation.
• Served as a research assistant at a Washington, D.C.-based policy institute (2024), leading research projects on Russian law, U.S. legal frameworks, and international relations.