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Max Perlman Joins Gunderson Dettmer as Labor & Employment Partner

March 28, 2022Firm News

Gunderson Dettmer is pleased to announce that C. Max Perlman has joined the firm as a Labor & Employment Partner in its Boston office. He joins the firm from prominent employment and litigation boutique Hirsch Roberts Weinstein, where he was a Partner.

Max is an experienced employment lawyer and business litigator, representing companies and entrepreneurs in a wide range of sophisticated matters, including restrictive covenants/non-competes, trade secrets, shareholder issues, wage and hour issues, discrimination, disputes arising out of mergers and acquisitions, and day-to-day employment counseling. He represents venture-backed high-growth companies and venture capital funds focused on a number of sectors, including technology, life sciences, aviation, education, healthcare services and transportation/logistics.

“I have known and worked with Max for more than 20 years. He has provided thoughtful labor and employment counsel to our clients and has delivered real results,” says Jay Hachigian, a Gunderson Dettmer founding partner and founder of the firm’s Boston office. “He has been our external thought partner, skillfully guiding hundreds of our clients through crises that, without his counsel, would surely have led to costly litigation. It was only natural for Max to move from external to internal and join our partnership.”

Max is nationally recognized as one of the top lawyers handling matters involving non-competition and non-solicitation agreements and misappropriation of trade secrets. At Gunderson Dettmer, he will apply his unique and wide-ranging experience handling these matters to help clients resolve noncompetition and trade secrets disputes before litigation.

“Joining Gunderson is a natural next step for me,” says Max Perlman. “I already know the partners and the risks and challenges the firm’s clients face as they scale. I can offer the team a complementary skill set focused on proactive risk management and pre-litigation dispute resolution. I am excited to help Gunderson’s clients resolve these thorny issues before they become impediments.”

“Just as my background as a litigator has been invaluable to counseling and advising Gunderson clients, Max’s experience will be deeply impactful to our firm’s clients,” says Natalie Pierce, chair of the firm’s Labor & Employment Practice.  “I am delighted to have Max join the firm’s team of labor & employment lawyers serving as trusted advisers.”  

“Gunderson prides itself on offering clients a top-notch network of talented litigators outside the firm and Max has been our go-to in Boston for years,” says Malcolm Nicholls, a Boston office leader, “His attention to the risks that stem from our clients’ employment and shareholder relationships will be a tremendous asset to the firm. I look forward to working with him even more closely now.”

Max is a graduate of Boston University School of Law (J.D., 1995) and Binghamton University (B.A., 1992). He has earned numerous awards, including 2021 Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers in America, and is individually ranked in Chambers. He frequently lectures about his area of practice, including as a guest lecturer at Boston University School of Law and as Chairperson and Faculty Member of numerous seminars at the Boston Bar Association and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.