An employee at an embassy found $2 million missing, but after the plot was straightened out, the minister in charge had him fired from his accounting position and from his next job. May an American court hear the non-diplomat who sues the embassy and the foreign government under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act?

The July 27, 2007 opinion in Mohammed Salem El-Hadad v. United Arab Emirates et al., docket number 06-7075, examines the issue in ways that will also be useful in assessing the restrictive nature of the FSIA in relation to local hires at embassies, consulates and similar institutions.

In it, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit highlights differences in the construction of the act by several courts with regard to various types of positions often filled by local hires. -- Clemens Kochinke, Berliner, Corcoran & Rowe, LLP, Washington.