Jonathan W. Hugg

Overview

Jonathan Hugg concentrates on commercial and appellate litigation, with an emphasis on financial institutions, real estate, regulatory enforcement, and municipal matters. He has more than 30 years of wide-ranging experience prosecuting, defending, and resolving contractual disputes and business torts throughout Pennsylvania and the broader Mid-Atlantic and Northeast region.

Jonathan regularly represents financial institutions, lenders, real estate developers, and businesses across a broad range of commercial matters. His work frequently involves loan work-outs, lender liability, fraudulent transfers, UCC and lien priority disputes, loan participation agreements, bankruptcy adversary proceedings, check fraud, and privacy and bank secrecy issues. He also frequently counsels companies and their directors, officers, and employees in connection with pre-indictment investigations by federal and state authorities.

Jonathan previously served as an assistant district attorney in the Appeals Unit of the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted more than 130 matters, both as appellee and appellant, before the Pennsylvania Supreme and Superior Courts. He maintains an active appellate practice.

Jonathan regularly publishes and speaks on business law issues, with recent commentary focused on developments in Pennsylvania’s Commerce Court and commercial litigation practice,  new fraudulent transfer legislation in Pennsylvania, and the impact of “cryptocurrency” and emerging “blockchain” technologies.

Representative Matters

Bankruptcy & Restructuring

• Prosecuted 5-year fraudulent transfer action, through state, federal, and bankruptcy courts, to achieve full recovery of defaulted multi-million-dollar commercial loan; bankruptcy court granted administrative claim status to community bank client, thereby allowing bank to “prime” IRS and all other creditors.
• Lead counsel in a 3½ year commercial loan workout involving nine separate federal and state lawsuits in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. The community bank client substantially recovered the entire eight-figure, ten-year-old debt owed by the bank’s borrower, with significant contributions from his foreign partners, despite fraudulent transfer and lien priority issues.
• Defeated on summary judgment a million-dollar claim by U.S. bankruptcy trustee attempting to strip bank of collateral lien in securities accounts.
• Achieved 100% recovery of the principal balance of an under-secured, non-performing multi-million-dollar commercial loan in rare Chapter 12 farm bankruptcy.

Financial Services Litigation

• Persuaded a private arbitrator to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction consumer fraud and RICO claims against a community lender client arising from the origination and administration of a “solar loan.”
• Leveraged motion for court-appointed receiver to extract 100%, eight-figure loan payoff plus substantial counsel fees from community bank’s largest recalcitrant commercial borrower.  Success in this “bet the company” litigation significantly improved not only the bank’s finances, but also its future prospects in a time of intense scrutiny by regulators and the market.
• Negotiated 85% reduction of mid-six figure administrative penalty imposed by state regulator upon community bank client.
• Persuaded trial court to dismiss contentious consumer protection claim alleging the forged execution of loan documents and credit damage; appellate court unanimously affirmed, explicitly adopting the basis argued to the trial court. 
• Negotiated through multiple, protracted mediations a no-cash settlement of multi-million-dollar consumer class action against community lender allegedly engaged in the unfair collection of defaulted loans.
• Defeated on summary judgment a multi-million-dollar lender liability claim by a prominent local nonprofit against an international bank. 
• Quieted title and returned to first priority a multi-million-dollar residential mortgage held by a Fortune 10 bank against claim of consumer fraud by homeowner.
• Overcame jurisdictional objections and won an award of full counsel fees for community lender in protracted federal court action against, inter alia, the federal government, to interplead multi-million deposits by indicted fraudster.

Litigation

• Overcoming the strong presumption against pre-judgment attachment, persuaded trial judge to issue an injunction freezing the assets of a vendor that refused to return almost $1 million inadvertently wired to it by client.

• In criminal matter against out-of-state public company for alleged state law regulatory violations, won two “Not Guilty” verdicts at trial and persuaded prosecutor to withdraw remaining charge.
• Successfully appealed denial by state Department of Revenue of six-figure research and development (R&D) tax credit for technology client, overcoming allegation that the client had untimely filed its application. 
• Over more than two years of court-supervised multi-party negotiations among adjacent real estate developers, secured no-payment settlement, full release, and dismissal of alleged nuisance and construction defect claims.
• Secured favorable outcomes in two commercial landlord and real estate disputes: persuaded a trial court to reverse summary judgment and enter a declaratory judgment entitling a community bank to retain a six-figure deposit after discovering the buyer had fabricated documentation to justify canceling the sale; and obtained dismissal on the eve of trial of a multi-million-dollar breach of lease claim, with full indemnification and counsel fees recovered from the breaching tenant.Won a $1.7 million fraud verdict after a 10-day trial in the Commerce Program of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County.
• Defeated defamation and invasion of privacy claims against a U.S. Congressman for allegedly false campaign literature and tactics.
• Authored winning briefs in two unanimous Pennsylvania Supreme Court decisions, Sphere Drake v. PGW (2001) and Commonwealth v. Collins (1997), and obtained an emergency writ of prohibition from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Mayer v. Garman (2006).Won a civil contempt finding and five-figure award of counsel fees for human services non-profit against a recalcitrant vendor after a 3-day remote bench trial in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County.
• After twice obtaining dismissal of claims, negotiated settlement on behalf of commercial landlord of multi-million-dollar action by national tenant to enforce right of first refusal and re-development provisions of lease, thereby enabling sale of landlord’s billion-dollar real estate portfolio.
• Served as Special Counsel to investigate allegations of sexual abuse in a municipal youth sports program.

Municipal

• Lead counsel in three-year defense of a suburban municipality and 25 current and former officers and employees in an unprecedented lawsuit filed by a real estate developer seeking recovery in excess of $80 million based on an alleged conspiracy between elected officials, municipal staff and solicitor and community members to deny land use approval for proposed construction.
• Devised and executed successful legal, lobbying and media strategy to defeat powerful and vocal institutional and community support for the grant of a multi-million-dollar government subsidy to client’s direct competitor.
• Represented a grassroots citizens’ group in its successful effort, including more than 20 contentious public hearings, to thwart the rezoning and sale of one of the last old growth forests in suburban Philadelphia.