Jonathan Joseph is Joseph, Cohen & Del Vecchio’s Founder and Managing Partner. He is peer review rated AV, Preeminent, a distinction awarded to a small fraction of attorneys in the nation for the highest level of legal ability, reputation – and ethics. He has practiced law for over forty years representing banks, bank holding companies, money transmitters, credit unions, fintechs, and other financial services companies with their most complex business and strategic imperatives such as mergers and acquisitions, regulatory and enforcement matters, corporate governance, board, audit and compensation advice, investigations, equity and debt offerings, corporate investigations, Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance coverage and indemnification matters.
Mr. Joseph is known in California and nationally for his creativity, skill, judgment, and relentless determination to achieve the objectives of his clients. He has a long track record of successfully advising clients (including Board Chairs and CEOs) in mergers and acquisitions, defending corporate takeovers, raising capital, boardroom matters, and strategic endeavors. During his career, he has consummated billions of dollars in corporate and investment transactions.
Mr. Joseph also represents executives and other commercial clients with an emphasis on investigating and defending clients exposed to white-collar criminal allegations, e-commerce, investment bankers, digital currency, private equity, public companies, and venture capital firms. He often acts as lead or special counsel for fund managers and other financial services clients in connection with acquisitions and divestitures, equity investments in early-stage and mezzanine companies, PIPES, cross-border transactions, public offerings, securities and disclosure issues, as well as federal and state bank regulatory and enforcement matters involving all federal banking agencies, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation and other state regulatory agencies.
A core specialty involves advising directors and officers of troubled and failed banks and defending litigation and enforcement actions by federal banking agencies or the US Department of Justice.
Some of the more prominent enforcement and white-collar cases in which Mr. Joseph has recently been involved include:
- Representing a US money transmitter company in connection with a federal grand jury subpoena and related issues;
- Favorably settling negligence and breach of fiduciary duty claims brought by the FDIC against the five most senior officers of County Bank in FDIC as Receiver for County Bank vs. Hawker, et al., (E.D. CA 2012);
- Successfully representing the outside directors of a number of failed state-chartered banks commencing in 2009 in which no claims were instituted;
- Settling bankruptcy and indemnification claims in the Chapter 11 reorganization case of In re: Capital Corp of the West, (U.S Bk. Ct., E.D.CA. – Fresno Division, 2012);
- Successfully defended an officer of the failed United Commercial Bank in connection with a federal criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice and FDIC enforcement action seeking a lifetime banking industry ban and civil money penalties;
- Negotiated a complex settlement with four D&O insurance companies and multiple other parties resulting in the insurers paying for our client’s legal defense costs against FDIC enforcement actions.
Mr. Joseph is a past Chair of the California Financial Institutions Committee of the State Bar of California’s Business Law Section from 2013 to 2014 and was a member of the Committee twice, once in the 1980’s and from 2009 – 2014. He is a member of the State Bar of California, District of Columbia Bar, State Bar of New York and American Bar Association.
Mr. Joseph’s past law firm experience includes:
- Partner at K & L Gates LLP (previously known as Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP) in the Corporate and Investment Management Group (2003-2006).
- Partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP (previously known as Pillsbury Madison & Sutro LLP) in the Corporate Securities and Financial Institutions Group (1990-2003).
Mr. Joseph earned his Juris Doctor degree from the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri in 1979, where he interned for F. Hodge O’Neal, the George Alexander Madill Professor of Corporate Law, and was a contributing writer of the 1979 Supplement to Professor O’Neal’s seminal work: “Squeeze-Outs” of Minority Shareholders: Expulsion or Oppression of Business Associates, Chicago: Callaghan, c1975. Mr. Joseph has been a frequent lecturer and writer on subjects relating to banking and financial institutions, money transmission and digital currency, corporate law, Dodd-Frank Act, mergers and acquisitions and venture capital. His professional interests also extend into the arts including operating an art gallery in San Francisco for five years where he specialized in postmodern art and photography. He was also a trustee of the American Conservatory Theater Foundation (A.C.T.) for six years and also served on its executive committee.
