Jonathan Perlman leads Venable’s Receivership Practice. Jonathan is frequently appointed by courts, and requested by regulatory agencies, to serve as receiver over businesses previously engaged in Ponzi schemes or other unlawful conduct, for the benefit of victims and creditors. He also represents other receivers and fiduciaries, including foreign representatives who have been appointed in a foreign insolvency proceeding or in Chapter 15 Bankruptcy Code matters, as well as victims and creditors. Recognized as a preeminent practitioner in this field, Jonathan frequently speaks and writes on receivership matters and is president of the National Association of Federal Equity Receivers (NAFER).
Jonathan is a seasoned litigator with over 30 years of experience handling complex individual client and class action litigation and arbitration matters on behalf of defendants and plaintiffs alike, including in the securities, franchise, hospitality, banking, accessibility, consumer rights, and employment arenas. Jonathan also served 14 years on the board of directors of a $1 billion community bank, where he chaired the compensation committee and served on its compliance and audit committees. This experience gives him a unique frontline perspective on management and industry issues, including those involving Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance. Whether handling a complex litigation or receivership-bankruptcy-insolvency matter, Jonathan brings his broad experience to create and manage teams with the knowledge and skills best suited to each assignment’s needs.
Given his representation of receivers, trustees, committees, and defrauded investors, Jonathan has a great deal of experience investigating and pursuing claims in connection with all varieties of deceptive schemes, and in asset recovery matters. Over the years, he has developed relationships with counsel, investigators, and law enforcement in many other countries to assist in efficiently navigating the multijurisdictional and recent crypto asset issues with which he and his team are often presented.
Jonathan also regularly represents franchisors and distributors and has handled numerous actions under state franchise relationship and registration laws, as well as under the Lanham Act and Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act and state deceptive and unfair trade practices acts.
In the securities litigation arena, Jonathan has represented investors, brokers, brokerage firms, and banks in federal and state courts and before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), self-regulatory organizations, and state banking authorities. He has successfully prosecuted (and defended against) class actions, obtaining millions of dollars for clients. He has also served as arbitrator chairperson for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Jonathan regularly lectures on and writes articles regarding receiverships, class actions, and franchise litigation. At the 2022 NAFER Annual Conference in Washington, DC, Jonathan produced and moderated NAFER’s first-ever Regulators Panel consisting of regulators from the SEC, the Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC), and the FTC. At the 2021 NAFER Annual Conference in Los Angeles, Jonathan presented a fireside chat with the FTC’s chief litigation counsel. At the 2020 NAFER Offshore Conference, Jonathan was a panelist and moderator on “What’s New for Receivers Around the World”; at the 2019 International Franchise Association Legal Symposium, he spoke on Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility class actions and damages actions; and at the 2018 NAFER Annual Conference, he spoke on protection of receivership assets. Jonathan also spoke as a panelist in recent webinars, including a ThoughtLeaders4 international insolvency webinar on “Assembling the A Team” with an international panel (2021), “Has the Bell Tolled for FTC Receiverships?” (NAFER 2021), and “Takedowns and Takeaways in Federal Receiverships” (NAFER 2020).
