Law Firms Defend Sberbank, Arguing: It’s a Russian State Bank

Law firms White & Case and Debevoise & Plimpton have already said they plan to stop representing Russia-owned Sberbank in a lawsuit over a 2014 attack on a civilian jetliner in Ukraine.

But before the firms leave, last week they again asked a federal judge to dismiss their client from the case for a simple reason: It’s a Russian state-owned bank and has sovereign immunity from lawsuit in the U.S.

The parents of Quinn Schansman, a U.S. man who died in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, are suing Sberbank and others in a federal court in Manhattan. They ...