LOS ANGELES – MAY 2, 2012 – Arent Fox's Pierre-Richard Prosper, a partner in the firm's Los Angeles office, is featured in the cover story of the May 2012 edition of California Lawyer magazine.

The 8-page article titled “The Extricator” examines Pierre's representation of a former US Marine who has been accused of espionage and imprisoned by the Iranian government. Amir Hekmati, an Iranian-American US citizen born in Arizona and raised in Michigan, was arrested in mid-September while on a visit to Iran and charged with spying. Pierre's ongoing work to rescue Mr. Hekmati has been featured on CNN and The Wall Street Journal.

The California Lawyer article also covers Pierre's successful effort to secure the freedom of a 71-year-old Iranian-American man unlawfully imprisoned in Iran for more than two years. Pierre, who has served as US Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, negotiated with Iranian authorities to secure the release of Reza Taghavi, a businessman from Orange County, from Evin Prison in Tehran and returned him to his family and home in southern California.

California Lawyer writes:

In this month's issue we profile Pierre-Richard Prosper, a globetrotting Los Angeles-based attorney who made history in the 1990s when he won the world's first conviction in a genocide trial. Now, as a private attorney, he's trying to rescue a former Marine who's being held in Iran on charges of spying for the United States.