Jonathan M. Freiman

Jonathan handles appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court, every federal circuit, and state appellate courts coast to coast. He has successfully vindicated clients’ most important intellectual property interests on appeal, including defeating a Nobel Prize winner in litigation over the ownership of the patent on the Nobel-winning technology. His victories in major commercial matters include reversals in a nine-figure case in the U.S. Supreme Court and in eight-figure cases in the Supreme Courts of California, Georgia, and Connecticut, where he reversed what was then the largest class-action or commercial judgment ever issued in the state.

Jonathan counsels clients in disputes involving art and artifacts, including claims involving provenance, authenticity, and export law. He successfully defended a client’s title to one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings, garnered a U.S. Supreme Court victory for Germany and the Berlin equivalent of the Smithsonian in a case alleging that a major collection of medieval art was obtained through duress in the Nazi era.

He represents sovereign nations and foreign sovereign officials in pursuing or defending claims in the United States. He has vindicated a former president of Mexico wrongly accused of violations of international human rights law, represented a foreign sovereign nation claiming RICO violations against a U.S. company, and has represented foreign sovereigns on Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act issues, including garnering a Supreme Court victory in a major FSIA case.

Jonathan has deep experience litigating international disputes in U.S. courts and frequently works with counsel in other nations, whether on coordinated multinational litigation or by advising on U.S. law. His appellate experience in this area includes appeals on Section 1782 litigation.

Among other recognitions, Chambers USA ranks Jonathan in its highest band, noting that clients have described him as “absolutely brilliant,” “a fiercely bright appellate lawyer who handles high end problems,” “a very cost-effective resource in contentious matters,” and “probably the very best appellate advocate I have ever seen.”

After graduating from Yale Law School, where he was Senior Editor of the Yale Law Journal and received a fellowship in legal ethics and awards from the Florida Supreme Court and the Cuban-American Bar Association, Jonathan clerked for the late Judge Louis H. Pollak, former Dean of Yale Law School, and then went on to co-found a clinical program at Yale, teaching there for five years while directing the project’s litigation work and serving as a senior human rights fellow.