Michael R. Perna has been a partner in the firm since 1985, concentrating in personal injury litigation, estate planning and administration, real estate sales and development, domestic issues and business litigation. He also has focused significantly on matters involving international trade and commerce.

Mr. Perna is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania, Texas and Colorado, and before several federal courts including the United States Courts of Appeal for the Ninth, Tenth and D.C. Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court. In addition, he is a licensed Pennsylvania real estate broker. Mr. Perna received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Temple University in 1976, and a Juris Doctor degree from St. Mary's University School of Law in 1979, where he was a member of the Law Review and published in the field of consumer lending. In 1984, Mr. Perna received a Master of Laws degree in Transnational Business and Taxation from the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law after completing advanced studies in public and private international law at the University of Salzburg in Salzburg, Austria.

Mr. Perna began his legal career as an attorney with the Commission of the European Economic Community (now known simply as the "European Community") in Brussels, Belgium, where he concentrated on transnational commercial issues. In 1982, he joined the staff of Mountain States Legal Foundation, and was lead counsel in public interest litigation heard in various state and federal courts, as well as in the United States Supreme Court, in the areas of constitutional law, public lands and Indian affairs.