I represent sovereign States in international disputes and advise clients on international law matters.
M. Arsalan Suleman is a partner in Foley Hoag’s International Litigation & Arbitration Practice. As a former senior diplomat and policymaker at the U.S. Department of State, he advises clients with a nuanced understanding of international law, politics, and diplomacy. His practice focuses on representing sovereign States in international disputes. Arsalan also advises his clients—including States, corporations, NGOs, and individuals—on global human rights matters.
Arsalan frequently represents sovereign States in inter-State disputes before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, UN treaty bodies, and arbitral tribunals. These disputes have involved genocide, human rights violations, territorial and maritime boundary claims, and other public international law claims.
Arsalan regularly represents States and State-owned entities in international arbitration matters. He has experience in arbitrations administered by the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and ad hoc tribunals under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. He also often represents States and State-owned entities before U.S. courts and has argued cases before the D.C. Circuit and several U.S. District Courts.
Arsalan is an active member of the firm’s Global Business and Human Rights practice. He advises clients on complex human rights matters. He also maintains an active pro bono practice on human rights matters.
Arsalan is the U.S. Department of State’s former Acting Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the world’s second largest international organization after the United Nations. He engaged with the OIC and its 57 member States on a broad range of foreign policy issues, establishing partnerships in areas of mutual interest such as human rights, countering violent extremism, health, education, entrepreneurship, and science and technology.
At the State Department he also served as Counselor for Multilateral Affairs in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. He was the lead multilateral human rights policy adviser on freedom of expression and freedom of religion globally, as well as the lead multilateral human rights policy adviser for the Middle East, North Africa, and South and Central Asia. In this role, Suleman drafted several UN resolutions, delivered remarks in various UN forums, and engaged with senior UN officials and special procedures mandate holders.
Prior to joining the State Department, Arsalan was a litigator in New York and clerked for the late Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
