William J. Perlstein

William J. Perlstein is senior managing director and vice chair of Client Services at FTI Consulting,Inc. in Washington, D.C., where he interfaces with and financial institution clients. He has spent 45years in the legal profession as a practice leader, law firm managing partner, senior in-house counsel, and outside consultant. After graduating from law school, Mr. Perlstein joined Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C., where he was first exposed to the insolvency world working on the PennCentral valuation case. After starting WCP’s national bankruptcy practice in 1981, he had major roles as debtor’s counsel or committee counsel in numerous chapter 11 cases. His professional service included two terms as a director of ABI, several leadership positions on ABA’s Business Bankruptcy Committee, and a major role in drafting several sections of the 1984 Bankruptcy Code revisions. Mr. Perlstein is aFellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, where he served as General Counsel to the Board for more than 15 years and which awarded him its Distinguished Service Award in 2020. He moved into law firm management in 1995 and became WCP’s managing partner in 1998, helping to grow the firm from 260 lawyers to more than 500 in six years. He led the firm’s 2004 merger with Hale and Dorr and served as WilmerHale’s co-managing partner until 2012. The American Lawyer recognized his management contributions with its Distinguished Law Firm Leader Award in 2014. Mr. Perlstein retired from WilmerHale in 2015 and joined BNY Mellon as senior deputy general counsel, leading the legal teams supporting regulatory relations, government affairs, corporate lending, cybersecurity and corporate services. After helping lead the preparation of the Bank’s resolution plan (“living will”), he interacted with regulators in the U.S., U.K., Europe and Asia on bank-resolution issues. Mr. Perlstein has been a frequent speaker on law firm management issues and pro bono matters, and he served as a director of the Neighborhood Legal Services Program in Washington, D.C. for more than 10 years. He received his undergraduate degree summa cum laude from Union College in 1971, attended the London School ofEconomics from 1969-70, and received his J.D. from Yale Law School in 1974, where he was managing editor of the Yale Law Journal. Following law school he clerked for Hon. Marvin E. Frankel of theSouthern District of New York from 1974-75.