Law Blog Lawyer of the Day: David Laufman, Friend of the Mini-Dulcimer

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Law Blog colleague Heather Won Tesoriero, who, way back in the day, filled in nobly as the Law Blogger, kindly filed the following dispatch with us:



One day last fall, David Laufman, a partner and trade controls expert at Kelley Drye & Warren in Washington, got an unexpected call. The man on the other end of the line was the son of Manoochehr Sadeghi, a virtuoso of the mini-dulcimer and professor of ethnomusicology at UCLA. Max Sadeghi explained that his father was missing some of his instruments and needed Laufman’s help. Intrigued, Laufman followed up.

The backstory that emerged: For years, Manoochehr Sadeghi had gotten his mini-dulcimers (also called santurs) from Iran — through an uncle in Tehran who sent them to Los Angeles.

Despite the U.S. trade sanctions against Iran that have been in place since 1979, the shipments always sailed through without problem. Sadeghi says he wasn’t aware that the santur shipments violated any laws and was just pleased to avoid playing “mediocre, amateurish” santurs sold here.

However, the mini-dulcimer free-flow from Tehran to L.A. stopped last summer when Sadeghi got a notice from DHL that his santurs had been seized and could be destroyed. Sadeghi told his son about his dilemma. His reaction: I’ll find you an attorney. Max Sadeghi trawled the Internet and discovered Laufman.

The lawyer says he was “enchanted” by the case, and further intrigued when he learned of the prestigious accolades of his client. Sadeghi, who’s lived in the U.S. since 1964, has performed at the Kennedy Center before heads of state and received a National Heritage Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. “My goal was to appeal to the reason and the humanity of the enforcement people whose first inclination might be to say no,” says Laufman.

The lawyer’s concern, however, was that even though mini-dulcimers aren’t a threat to homeland security, the rules are the rules. The sanctions have been in place since 1979. “I thought it’ll be easy for the Treasury to punt and say I’m sure he’s a nice man, but…”

So, what lawyerly strategies does one employ to free the mini-dulcimers? First, Laufman scoured the exceptions to the sanctions, which include publications, films, posters, compact discs and newswire feeds. (Our favorite: phonograph records.) “I looked and looked and could not find the exception for dulcimers,” Laufman says.

Once that was off the table, Laufman set about preparing a compendium of documentation of his client’s professional and artistic standing—garnering letters of support from a Smithsonian official and the Mayor of Beverly Hills (an Iranian and former santur student of Sadeghi). In his package, he acknowledged that the dulcimers didn’t have the appropriate licensing from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) but argued that the instruments met the requirements for the regulatory exceptions made for informational materials and gifts. Furthermore, Laufman argued, even if they didn’t meet those exceptions, this was an ideal case for OFAC to exercise its discretion.

He sent his dossier out on Dec. 5 and at the end of January, he received a letter from OFAC which stated: “Mr. Manoochehr Sadeghi is hereby authorized to engage in all transactions necessary to receive delivery from Iran of four miniature hammered dulcimers (santurs) seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on or about August 30, 2007.”

Said Sadeghi: “I’m so, so pleased. Mr. Laufman and his staff treated this case as if it was just as important as a big case.”