Stephenson Harwood played an instrumental role securing release of American hostages during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. Acting for Bank Markazi, a leading Iranian financial institution, their personnel became de facto mediators between Iran and America. At the time all foreign Iranian assets, including those of Bank Markazi, were frozen. A key factor delaying release of the hostages was the unfreezing of Iranian assets. Stephenson Harwood engineered the means by which this could be done, causing US Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance to laud the firm.