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Jeffrey H. Perry

Jeffrey H. Perry

Partner

Atlantic Station
201 17th Street NW
Suite 1700
Atlanta, GA 30363
The McPherson Building
901 15th Street, NW
Suite 1200
Washington, D.C., 20005
jeff.perry@nelsonmullins.com

Jeff Perry leads a distinguished private markets practice built on high-complexity, high-consequence transactions. He represents acquirers in complex and often programmatic M&A, private credit lenders across the full life of their facilities from origination through workout and enforcement, and growth-stage companies and their investors in sophisticated financings. He pairs deep sector knowledge in aerospace and...

Jeff Perry leads a distinguished private markets practice built on high-complexity, high-consequence transactions. He represents acquirers in complex and often programmatic M&A, private credit lenders across the full life of their facilities from origination through workout and enforcement, and growth-stage companies and their investors in sophisticated financings. He pairs deep sector knowledge in aerospace and defense with structural command of the issues that behave much the same across asset classes: capital structures, contested negotiations, and transactions that resist a standard form. He is sought out for matters that demand judgment, creativity, and the composure to execute under pressure.

The oldest son of a lawyer and diplomat, Jeff’s practice was forged in the centers of American power: Wall Street and Washington, D.C. Mentored from an early age by counselors who prized discretion over visibility, he built his practice accordingly: by word of mouth, through a carefully vetted network of trusted colleagues who refer their most consequential matters.

As Chair of the firm’s Aerospace, Defense, and National Security Practice, Jeff works at the intersection of capital formation and national security. He represents defense technology companies and their investors in the financings that carry them from prototype to production, and he represents defense services businesses and the investment firms behind them in the acquisitions that build them into full-lifecycle providers to the defense, space, and intelligence markets. That work is grounded in a career spent as outside counsel to the sector, from two of the nation’s preeminent defense enterprises to the emerging technical innovators now reshaping it, and it extends into ongoing general counsel relationships with clients navigating the sector’s distinctive regulatory landscape. He also serves on the External Advisory Board of Georgia Tech’s Space Research Institute, where he works alongside former NASA astronauts, senior defense and intelligence community leaders, and operating executives from across the commercial space industry.

Beyond institutional mandates, Jeff is trusted counsel to a select group of private clients for whom discretion and results are equally non-negotiable. He structures and executes direct and co-investments, club deals and consortium acquisitions, liquidity events and exits, and the governance and co-investment arrangements that hold them together, for multi-generational family offices, closely held and family-controlled operating businesses, founders and entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, senior political figures, and international investors. He also serves as an independent director of two privately held companies, which gives him the perspective of a fiduciary inside the boardroom as well as counsel across the table.

Jeff has been recognized as a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” and named to Georgia Trend magazine’s “Legal Elite” in both Business Law and Corporate Law. His commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Foreign Policy.

A fourth-generation Atlantan, Jeff serves on a range of corporate and civic boards and holds membership in select private organizations throughout the region. A certified firefighter, he served as volunteer fire chief outside Washington, D.C., a distinction that speaks as much to his character as his credentials.

Jeffrey H. Perry

defense with structural command of the issues that behave much the same across asset classes: capital structures, contested negotiations, and transactions that resist a standard form. He is sought out for matters that demand judgment, creativity, and the composure to execute under pressure.

The oldest son of a lawyer and diplomat, Jeff’s practice was forged in the centers of American power: Wall Street and Washington, D.C. Mentored from an early age by counselors who prized discretion over visibility, he built his practice accordingly: by word of mouth, through a carefully vetted network of trusted colleagues who refer their most consequential matters.

As Chair of the firm’s Aerospace, Defense, and National Security Practice, Jeff works at the intersection of capital formation and national security. He represents defense technology companies and their investors in the financings that carry them from prototype to production, and he represents defense services businesses and the investment firms behind them in the acquisitions that build them into full-lifecycle providers to the defense, space, and intelligence markets. That work is grounded in a career spent as outside counsel to the sector, from two of the nation’s preeminent defense enterprises to the emerging technical innovators now reshaping it, and it extends into ongoing general counsel relationships with clients navigating the sector’s distinctive regulatory landscape. He also serves on the External Advisory Board of Georgia Tech’s Space Research Institute, where he works alongside former NASA astronauts, senior defense and intelligence community leaders, and operating executives from across the commercial space industry.

Beyond institutional mandates, Jeff is trusted counsel to a select group of private clients for whom discretion and results are equally non-negotiable. He structures and executes direct and co-investments, club deals and consortium acquisitions, liquidity events and exits, and the governance and co-investment arrangements that hold them together, for multi-generational family offices, closely held and family-controlled operating businesses, founders and entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, senior political figures, and international investors. He also serves as an independent director of two privately held companies, which gives him the perspective of a fiduciary inside the boardroom as well as counsel across the table.

Jeff has been recognized as a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” and named to Georgia Trend magazine’s “Legal Elite” in both Business Law and Corporate Law. His commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Foreign Policy.

A fourth-generation Atlantan, Jeff serves on a range of corporate and civic boards and holds membership in select private organizations throughout the region. A certified firefighter, he served as volunteer fire chief outside Washington, D.C., a distinction that speaks as much to his character as his credentials.

Jeff Perry leads a distinguished private markets practice built on high-complexity, high-consequence transactions. He represents acquirers in complex and often programmatic M&A, private credit lenders across the full life of their facilities from origination through workout and enforcement, and growth-stage companies and their investors in sophisticated financings. He pairs deep sector knowledge in aerospace and... defense with structural command of the issues that behave much the same across asset classes: capital structures, contested negotiations, and transactions that resist a standard form. He is sought out for matters that demand judgment, creativity, and the composure to execute under pressure.

The oldest son of a lawyer and diplomat, Jeff’s practice was forged in the centers of American power: Wall Street and Washington, D.C. Mentored from an early age by counselors who prized discretion over visibility, he built his practice accordingly: by word of mouth, through a carefully vetted network of trusted colleagues who refer their most consequential matters.

As Chair of the firm’s Aerospace, Defense, and National Security Practice, Jeff works at the intersection of capital formation and national security. He represents defense technology companies and their investors in the financings that carry them from prototype to production, and he represents defense services businesses and the investment firms behind them in the acquisitions that build them into full-lifecycle providers to the defense, space, and intelligence markets. That work is grounded in a career spent as outside counsel to the sector, from two of the nation’s preeminent defense enterprises to the emerging technical innovators now reshaping it, and it extends into ongoing general counsel relationships with clients navigating the sector’s distinctive regulatory landscape. He also serves on the External Advisory Board of Georgia Tech’s Space Research Institute, where he works alongside former NASA astronauts, senior defense and intelligence community leaders, and operating executives from across the commercial space industry.

Beyond institutional mandates, Jeff is trusted counsel to a select group of private clients for whom discretion and results are equally non-negotiable. He structures and executes direct and co-investments, club deals and consortium acquisitions, liquidity events and exits, and the governance and co-investment arrangements that hold them together, for multi-generational family offices, closely held and family-controlled operating businesses, founders and entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, senior political figures, and international investors. He also serves as an independent director of two privately held companies, which gives him the perspective of a fiduciary inside the boardroom as well as counsel across the table.

Jeff has been recognized as a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” and named to Georgia Trend magazine’s “Legal Elite” in both Business Law and Corporate Law. His commentary has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Foreign Policy.

A fourth-generation Atlantan, Jeff serves on a range of corporate and civic boards and holds membership in select private organizations throughout the region. A certified firefighter, he served as volunteer fire chief outside Washington, D.C., a distinction that speaks as much to his character as his credentials.

Experience

The following is a selected sampling of matters and is provided for informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in any future matter.

Experience

  • Represents clients in complex, high-value M&A transactions, capital markets offerings, and sophisticated private financings, with particular depth in cross-border deals, non-regular way structures, and matters requiring creative capital solutions
  • Advises boards, executives, family offices, and founders on governance, equity structuring, regulatory compliance, and strategic positioning across the full company lifecycle, from formation through exit
  • Counsels sophisticated private clients, institutional investors, and independent directors on complex acquisitions, private investments, and other high-consequence matters requiring both legal precision and sound business judgment

Representative Matters

Aerospace, Defense, and National Security

  • Lead counsel in a $350 million Series C financing, comprising $200 million of equity and $150 million of debt, for a venture-backed defense aviation company developing high-Mach unmanned aircraft for national security missions, at a $1 billion post-money valuation 
  • Lead counsel to a defense-focused private investment firm and its platform company in the acquisition of an Ohio-based provider of scientific, engineering, and technical services to space and defense customers, combining to create a leading provider of full lifecycle support to the defense, space, and intelligence markets
  • Lead counsel to a defense-focused private investment firm and its platform company in the acquisition of a provider of aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul, logistics, supply chain, and training services
  • Lead counsel in the cross-border sale of the U.S. and international operations of a leading trade and supply chain compliance software company, whose platform serves regulated manufacturers across the aerospace and defense industrial base, to a Canadian public company
  • Lead counsel in the sale of a leading provider of secure wireless and communications infrastructure solutions to a U.S. public acquiror, including negotiation of related business transition agreements
  • Advised an author and his U.S. publisher on the national security implications of a lifetime confidentiality undertaking to a foreign government, including prepublication review negotiations with that government’s defence ministry and the cross-border effect of injunctive relief against publication

Private Equity, M&A, and Strategic Transactions

  • Lead counsel to a consortium of family offices and a privately held conglomerate in their approximately $800 million acquisition of a leading direct-to-consumer technical outdoor apparel and equipment brand from an institutional private equity sponsor, including consortium formation, governance and co-investment arrangements, acquisition financing, and management continuity arrangements 
  • Lead counsel to a European-based construction technology company in an investment and the subsequent exit, negotiated opposite the former chief executive of a Fortune 10 energy major and his counsel
  • Lead counsel to a leading Southeastern heavy civil and highway construction contractor in strategic acquisitions, including a multi-state heavy civil contractor and regional asphalt production and paving operations
  • Lead counsel to a government payments technology company in its sale to a leading government software and payments platform
  • Lead counsel to a Nordic manufacturer in the divestiture of certain European retail and service operations
  • Lead counsel in the merger of a marketing software company with a publicly traded digital media company
  • Lead counsel in the cross-border sale of multi-state operations of a leading forest products company to an international strategic acquiror, including negotiation of related business transition agreements
  • Lead counsel in the cross-border sale of the U.S. and European operations of an innovative IoT and cloud solutions company to a leading technology company for the multifamily industry
  • Lead counsel in the sale of a leading provider of communication and retailing solutions for automotive dealerships to a leading provider of dealership software and services, including negotiation of related executive employment agreements
  • $13.3 billion sale of interests in certain Canadian oil sands operations by an American multinational energy corporation
  • $1.8 billion acquisition of an American multinational chain of fried chicken fast food restaurants by a Canadian multinational corporation
  • $1.2 billion merger of a privately held LNG development company, supporting domestic energy export infrastructure, with a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC)

Private Credit and Growth Equity Financings

  • Lead counsel to a Japanese multinational insurance group in its approximately $47 million lead investment in a $70 million Series C financing of a global embedded insurance technology platform
  • Represented a venture-backed dating technology company in successive growth financings by two leading global technology investors
  • Lead counsel in an early-stage preferred stock financing, led by a data-driven venture capital firm, for a healthcare technology company whose platform connects clinics with compounding pharmacies
  • Lead counsel to a private credit and growth equity platform across more than twenty financings for technology companies in healthcare, fintech, insurtech, automotive, geospatial, and location-intelligence analytics, including first-lien secured growth term loans with warrants, hybrid debt and equity structures, Series A and Series C preferred equity investments, intercreditor and subordination arrangements, follow-on financings, and workouts
  • Lead counsel to a growth equity investor in a Series A preferred stock financing made alongside an institutional venture investor, paired with a bank-provided senior credit facility and the payoff of an affiliate’s existing term loan, for a location-intelligence analytics company serving the out-of-home advertising industry
  • Lead counsel to a private credit lender in the restructuring of a software borrower’s secured facilities, including a junior payment-in-kind tranche behind a senior lender, interest deferral, and enforcement

Capital Markets

  • $125 million IPO of a high-growth franchisor and operator of fast casual restaurants on Nasdaq
  • $100 million IPO of a financial services firm on Nasdaq
  • $95 million IPO of a medical device company on the NYSE
  • More than $1 billion of private offerings of senior fixed rate, dollar- and euro-denominated notes for a leading everyday basic apparel company
  • $544 million mega-block trade for a REIT specializing in development, acquisition, leasing, and property management of Class A office towers
  • Secondary offerings of $178 million, $176 million, and $138 million for a high-growth franchisor and operator of fast casual restaurants
  • $83 million special dividend to stockholders of a high-growth franchisor and operator of fast casual restaurants
  • $80 million special dividend to stockholders of a premium performance sport boats company
     

Previous Professional Experience

  • Attorney in the Atlanta and Washington, D.C. offices of King & Spalding LLP, practicing in the areas of corporate & securities, capital markets, and private equity

Education

  • Mercer University School of Law, JD
  • University of the South (Sewanee), BS, Natural Resources

Admissions

  • Georgia
  • District of Columbia
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
  • U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia

Practice Areas

Industries

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  • American Bar Association
  • State Bar of Georgia
  • Atlanta Bar Association
  • Member, Lawyer’s Club of Atlanta
  • Member, External Advisory Board, Georgia Tech Space Research Institute
  • Emeritus  Member, Board of Directors, Atlanta Fire Rescue Foundation