About Elena Dvoinik

Elena Dvoinik is a New York attorney with an international legal and business background. Her practice focuses on immigration law, personal injury, civil litigation, administrative proceedings, appellate advocacy, and complex governmental and cross-border disputes.

Early Legal Career (Moscow)

Elena began her legal career as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Elena A. Titarova at the Simonovsky District Court in Moscow during a period of significant economic and institutional instability in Russia.

As part of her clerkship, she worked on:

  • Wage-enforcement claims connected to the insolvency of the Likhachov Plant (ZiL, "ЗИЛ"), one of Moscow's major industrial enterprises.

  • Housing disputes involving ZiL dormitory and residential properties during the implementation of Russia's post-Soviet privatization framework.

  • Mass investor-fraud litigation arising from pyramid schemes and financial collapses that affected thousands of individuals in Moscow during the late 1990s.

This early court experience provided firsthand exposure to civil procedure, evidentiary issues, judicial decision-making, enforcement proceedings, and large-scale civil disputes during a period of economic transition.

Following her clerkship, Elena practiced law in Moscow in civil and administrative litigation.

Business Leadership (Vienna, Austria)

From 2012 through 2020, Elena served as Chief Executive Officer of a property management corporation in Vienna, Austria. She handled operational and regulatory matters involving:

  • Real estate management

  • Licensing and permitting

  • Employment issues

  • Municipal compliance

  • International business transactions

U.S. Legal Education & Immigration Law Training

Elena earned her LL.M. in American Legal System from Florida State University College of Law, graduating cum laude in 2024.

During her LL.M., she completed advanced coursework in U.S. immigration law involving immigration history, Supreme Court jurisprudence, statutory interpretation, and asylum law.

She passed the New York State Bar Examination in July 2025 and is admitted to practice in New York.

U.S. Litigation Experience

Elena's U.S. litigation experience includes complex federal and state proceedings involving:

  • Sovereign immunity

  • Constitutional claims

  • Public-records litigation (FOIA/FOIL)

  • Administrative law

  • Cross-border disputes

  • Appellate practice

She has handled federal and appellate litigation involving the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA), civil rights claims, and complex jurisdictional issues.

Notable achievement: Legal arguments developed in Elena's federal litigation work concerning the interpretation of the FSIA's expropriation exception were later referenced in filings before the Supreme Court of the United States, in connection with disagreement among lower courts regarding FSIA jurisdiction.

Languages

English · Russian · German

Education

  • Florida State University College of Law — LL.M., American Legal System, cum laude (2024). Completed advanced coursework in U.S. immigration law involving immigration history, Supreme Court jurisprudence, statutory interpretation, and asylum law.

  • University of Vienna Faculty of Law (Austria) — Coursework and advanced studies in European Union law and private international law (2012–2017).

  • Academy of Labor and Social Relations (Russia) — Specialist in Jurisprudence (2002).

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