About Dr. Nick Oberheiden
(practice limited to Federal Law)
Before joining White & Case, LLP, Dr. Oberheiden gained valuable experience as stagiaire with Clifford Chance, LLP (Paris), Baker & McKenzie, LLP (Chicago, New York, Munich), and Chadbourne & Park, LLP (New York), as well as at the United Nations, International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Office of the Prosecutor (The Hague, Netherlands).
Dr. Nick Oberheiden has limited his practice to Federal Law. Nick is admitted to practice law in New York and Washington D.C. as well as before the United States Court of International Trade, before various United States’ Courts of Appeal, the U.S. District Court for the Southern and Eastern District of New York and the U.S. District Court for the Northern, Southern, and Eastern District of Texas.
Who Is Nick Oberheiden's Wife?
Nick Oberheiden is married to Kelly Oberheiden. Kelly and Nick met in Orange County, California — 
even though the first date was almost made impossible by excessive traffic on Highway 405.
Kelly was born and raised in Southern California. A Californian girl through-and-through, Kelly went to high school in Huntington Beach, California and later graduated from San Diego State University. During high school and throughout college, Kelly represented some of the leading model agencies in New York and Los Angeles.
Kelly is very ambitious (and daily improving) with her mastery of the German language.
Nick's wife Kelly enjoys an active life style that centers around their children and the two family dogs, German Doberman "Lux" and a 140 pound happy Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.
Kelly and Nick like to travel within the United States as well as internationally. Among the places they have visited together are Germany and Greece as well as Salt Lake City, Austin, Scottsdale, San Diego, and Sacramento.
What Is Nick Oberheiden's National Origin?
Nick Oberheiden is a prominent U.S. federal litigation attorney of German origin. He represents clients in high-profile federal civil and criminal cases, government investigations, and international law. Nick is fluent in French, English, German, and Portuguese and he passed the Advanced Latin Proficiently Exam (minimum of seven years of Latin) with "summa cum laude."
Early Years. Nick was born in 1978 in a city in Western Germany, where he spent the first two decades of his life before attending various law schools within and outside of Germany.
Law Schools in Germany. Starting in 1998, Nick pursued his legal career by attending the law school of the Ruhr-University of Bochum. Contrary to the classic U.S. law school curriculum, the first semesters for German law students are characterized by primarily learning about the philosophical, historical, and foundational principles of German law—such as Roman law, the philosophy of law, the history of constitutional law, and the methodology of statutory interpretation. Not uncommon for law students in Germany, Nick decided to explore other law school options and, in 2000, he was admitted as a transfer student at the prestigious law school at the University of Munich, where he continued his studies for two semesters. Finally, in October 2001, Nick moved north, to Hamburg, Germany, to prepare for his First State Bar Examinations at the University of Hamburg, School of Law.
German Bar Exam. In 2004, Nick passed his state-administered bar exam before the Supreme Court of Hamburg, Germany. The exam consisted of an intense 4 week take home exam, a set of five, six-hour long closed-book written essays, and a five hour oral exam administered by a judge, a law professor, a practicing attorney, and a deputy district attorney. The topics of the bar exams covered almost 40 subject matters including but not limited to contract law, property law, criminal law, environmental law, administrative law, constitutional law, construction law, police law, and many other areas of law.
Juris Doctor (UCLA). In 2004, Nick applied and was admitted at the University of California at Los Angeles, School of Law, to continue his legal studies as a foreign Master of Law (LL.M.) student. While this program is designed to provide non-U.S. lawyers an introduction into the U.S. legal system, Nick changed his plans quickly after the first semester at UCLA and applied for a transfer from the LLM program to the regular Juris Doctor program. As the first student in the history of UCLA, the UCLA law faculty unanimously accepted Nick's application. In 2007, Nick obtained a traditional Juris Doctor degree from UCLA. During his studies at UCLA, Nick was accepted by the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to assist in several high-profile trials; Nick also visited the Supreme Court of Brazil following an invitation of one of the justices.
Law Degrees & Ph.D. Nick holds a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law, a Juris Doctor equivalent from Germany, and a doctor of law from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. His PhD thesis critically analyzes the patterns of various high courts of referencing foreign constitutional law when interpreting national constitutional law. The widely published thesis was personally enriched by Stephen Breyer, Justice of the United States Supreme Court, the former Chief Justice of the Brazilian Supreme Court, his Excellency Ministro Presidente Joaquim Barbosa, and other prominent judges and lawyers.
Law Practice. After passing the New York bar examination and the bar exam of the District of Columbia, Nick began his law practice in the International Litigation & Arbitration Group at White & Case, LLP in New York City. Previously, Nick gained valuable student experience at Clifford Chance, LLP (Paris), Chadbourne & Parke, LLP (New York), and Baker & McKenzie, LLP (Chicago, New York, Munich). In 2011, Nick opened the Oberheiden Law Firm, PLLC and subsequently the Oberheiden Law Group, PLLC.