Perrie M Weiner

Practice Areas

Perrie M. Weiner is the partner in charge of Baker McKenzie's Los Angeles office and Chair of the Firm's North America Securities Litigation Group. With over 30 years of experience, Perrie's practice focuses primarily on securities class action and shareholder derivative litigation, and SEC enforcement matters. He is acknowledged as the "go-to advocate for hedge funds facing complex suits and CEOs squaring off against the US Securities and Exchange Commission,” (Law 360). His practice also includes "high stakes" complex business litigation.

Perrie has been approved by American International Group, Inc. (AIG) and XL Group PLC, as one of the few lawyers in California to represent directors and officers in securities and other complex (class action) litigation matters. He is also recognized as a leading individual in Litigation: Securities in California by Chambers USA (2021 and 2022) and was a key player in growing and leading the Firm's North America Securities Litigation Group, which was ranked a top tier in the 2021 and 2022 US Legal 500. The LA Business Journal named him a Leader of Influence: Litigators & Trial Lawyers since 2019, and a Top 100 Lawyer in 2022, as well as one of the Top 500 most influential people in LA, in 2022, and the Daily Journal recognized him as one of California's Top Mega-Rainmakers. He received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and the Wiley W. Manuel Award for his pro bono legal work. Perrie also has been repeatedly selected for inclusion in Super Lawyers and LawDragon's Leading Lawyers in America.

Perrie offers clients a holistic approach to advocacy and defends some of the most high-profile and complex regulatory actions and securities fraud class action cases in the US. He represents private equity funds, including hedge funds, broker-dealers, underwriters, placement agents and issuers (including their officers and directors) in SEC and FINRA enforcement proceedings as well as in white collar criminal proceedings. In addition, Perrie defends both underwriters and issuers (and their officers and directors) in securities class actions, shareholder derivative actions and takeover defense litigation.

Beyond securities matters, Perrie also has an active complex business litigation practice, including representing parties in California consumer class actions involving claimed violations of the Right to Privacy (including TCPA, CCPA, "call recording," data breach, cybersecurity and the like), Automatic Renewal Law, Section 17200 and RICO.

Perrie is also at the forefront of recent high-profile Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) and de-SPAC M&A securities class action litigation, including SEC enforcement, and is a leader of the Firm's global SPAC Rapid Response Team. In addition, Perrie speaks, publishes and is quoted in the media regularly, as he has become a world-renowned authority in the area. He is currently handling the highest-profile case in this niche area, for a space technology company that has been in the news media frequently as the first SPAC where the SEC brought an enforcement action against all market participants, including the SPAC, its officers and directors, the de-SPAC target, its former CEO, and all before the de-SPAC M&A transaction was complete.

Ever the innovator and on the cutting edge of litigation addressing clients' immediate business imperatives, Perrie helped establish and leads the Firm's Lease Litigation and Restructuring (LLRG) practice, created to address clients' needs during the global COVID-19 pandemic. He is actively representing retailers (some with over 250 locations across the US), tech companies, physicians with surgery centers, law firms, and many other types of tenants that have been negatively impacted by the inability to occupy their premises and with related business disruption. Perrie, along with a multi-disciplinary team of Baker McKenzie lawyers, is helping these clients renegotiate and restructure their leases and, where necessary, represent them in landlord-litigated disputes.

Perrie has an international practice, with scores of litigation victories, pending cases and publications widely reported in Time, Business Week, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, New York Law Journal, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Money Management Executive, PIPEs Report, HedgeWorld and The Economist, among others. In addition to representing private and public companies in a variety of industries in both national and international business disputes, as well as in securities class and derivative actions, Perrie also represents both domestic and international market participants (including many Chinese issuers traded in the US, as well as underwriters and placement agents with respect to those transactions) in a wide range of securities litigation and enforcement matters, including pre-litigation crisis management counseling.

Professional Memberships

• Beverly Hills Bar Association (BHBA)

• Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA)

• Advisory Board, Institute of Corporate Counsel, USC Gould School of Law

Publications

• Author, "My Advice to a Young Lawyer: Never Miss a Beat," Los Angeles Business Journal, May 2022

• Co-author, "Short Sale Verdict Shows Need For Better Portfolio Disclosure," Law360, 10 December 2021

• Co-author, "Navigating SPAC Risks During Heightened SEC Scrutiny," Los Angeles Business Journal, 15 November 2021

• Co-author, "SEC Rattles SPAC Market With Novel Enforcement Action," Bloomberg Law, 18 August 2021

• Co-author, "Tips for Liability Prevention for SPACs," Bloomberg Law, 7 July 2021

• Author, "For SPACs, an Ounce of Liability Prevention Is Worth a Pound of Cure," NACD BoardTalk, June 2021

• Co-author, "How SPACs Can Avoid Failed China Reverse Mergers 2.0," Law360, 27 April 2021

• Co-author, "Common Law Defenses May Favor Commercial Tenants in Covid-19 Disputes," Bloomberg Law, 1 April 2021

• Co-author, "'Short Squeeze' Class Actions Face Uphill Battle," Law360, February 2021

Work Highlights

"Lease Litigation & Restructuring:

• Represents a makeup studio (with numerous stores in shopping centers around the US) and leader in virtual makeup classes in multiple lease negotiations and litigation matters due to COVID-19.

• Represents American music retailer chain with over 250 locations in lease litigation matters throughout the United States.

• Represents a high profile Beverly Hills plastic surgeon with a large surgery center in lease negotiations due to COVID-19.

• Represents a web designer for K-12 schools using intuitive content management software in ongoing COVID-19 related lease litigation.

• Represents a fintech company on ongoing COVID-19 related lease litigation and action for declaratory relief."

Expert in these Jurisdictions

USA

Languages Spoken

English

Education