Juan Perla

Mr. Perla’s expertise includes multijurisdictional disputes involving complex commercial, statutory and regulatory issues, such as the forced sale of a foreign company’s multibillion-dollar U.S. subsidiary subject to economic sanctions and the alleged expropriation of a U.S. company’s foreign subsidiary under international law. As an appellate lawyer, he focuses on high-stakes appeals and critical motions in U.S. courts, and represents clients at the certiorari and merits stages in the Supreme Court.

Mr. Perla is also experienced in international arbitrations, including project-finance, infrastructure development, and investor-state disputes. He represents clients in actions to enforce or challenge arbitral awards and in post-judgment proceedings involving execution on worldwide assets.

Mr. Perla clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

In addition to his disputes practice, Mr. Perla counsels clients on pre-litigation risk and cross-border legal issues. He has advised clients on a variety of matters involving regulatory compliance, internal investigations, whistleblowing, anti-bribery laws, executive compensation, employment discrimination, economic sanctions, public international law, foreign sovereign immunity, and U.S. foreign relations law.

Mr. Perla is also attuned to the reputational risks associated with operating in highly regulated environments domestically and internationally. Before joining the firm, he led business strategy on corporate social responsibility and crisis communications in the healthcare space. He also worked on human rights issues for non-governmental organizations at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Combining these diverse experiences with his legal practice, Mr. Perla advises clients on human rights and ESG issues.

Mr. Perla writes and speaks regularly on a variety of subjects. Most recently, he has focused on AI law and ethics. Among other publications, he analyzed the new SVAMC Guidelines on AI Use in Arbitration for Columbia Law School’s American Review of International Arbitration blog. He is currently a member of a working group on AI Policy Guidelines and Best Practices for In-house Law Departments as part of the Duke Center on Law and Technology’s initiative on Responsible AI in Legal Services (RAILS).

Mr. Perla also wrote a law and economics paper titled “A Game Theoretic Analysis of the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption,” which was selected for presentation at the OECD. This paper was published in the Richmond Journal of Global Law and Business and cited by Transparency International as an example of “studies using innovative research designs.” He co-authored a chapter in “The Guide to Challenging and Enforcing Arbitration Awards” (1st and 2nd eds.) published by Global Arbitration Review.

Mr. Perla represents non-profits and individuals as litigants or amici in high-impact appellate matters, including before the Supreme Court. He has represented pro bono clients in cases involving equal protection, First Amendment rights, anti-discrimination laws, LGBTQ rights, prisoner rights, veteran benefits, and criminal procedure. He was a member of the Curtis team recognized by the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico for their efforts to bring equal rights to the residents of Puerto Rico in the Vaello-Madero case.

Mr. Perla spearheads the firm’s partnership with The Appellate Project (TAP), a non-profit dedicated to diversifying the appellate bar, and serves on TAP’s development committee. Mr. Perla served on Law360’s Appellate Editorial Advisory Board for two years, in 2022 and 2023.