Jonathan Harris is Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler’s Founder and Managing Partner. A high-stakes trial lawyer with extensive business and financial experience, Jonathan is recognized as a premier advocate in the courtroom and in business negotiations. Mr. Harris is lead counsel in litigations, arbitrations, mediations and investigations.
He advises companies, C-Suite executives, founders, portfolio managers, and top producers in employment and partnership matters, and represents clients facing internal, regulatory and criminal investigations.
Notable Matters:
- Mr. Harris is one of New York’s leading trial lawyers, specializing in employment and white collar criminal matters. He regularly tries multiple high profile cases every year. His public cases include:
- a ground-breaking 2023 federal jury trial involving trademark protection for NFT’s in the Metaverse;
- obtaining, in 2021, public recognition of his client as a founding team member of a high profile technology company along with a substantial financial settlement;
- bringing a path-breaking malicious prosecution claim in 2023 against a major international bank on behalf of a former trader who was indicted and ultimately acquitted on all charges related to Libor market manipulation;
- winning in 2022, with co-counsel, a record-setting $52 million defamation award in FINRA on behalf of a hedge fund portfolio manager against his former employer;
- defending the family of a former President of Taiwan in a forfeiture case brought by the US Department of Justice;
- successfully resolving a Black Friday internet gambling action brought by the Department of Justice against a world-renowned poker player and founder of Full-Tilt Poker;
- winning a $20+ million federal jury award for a founder cut out of a partnership venture;
- winning the complete exoneration of a prominent financial advisor on SEC charges following a month-long federal jury trial and all appeals; and
- winning, with co-counsel, a $61 million award for a hedge fund against an international bank relating to a complex derivative transaction.
Education:
Mr. Harris is a 1984 graduate of Stanford University, Phi Beta Kappa, and a 1987 graduate of Stanford Law School, Order of the Coif. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Stanford Law School.
Clerkships and Admissions:
Mr. Harris clerked for Federal Judge Thomas P. Griesa in the Southern District of New York, and is admitted to the bars of New York, District of Columbia, and California.
Updated Sep 2024