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Overview

Rick Perr is co-chair Kaufman Dolowich’s Financial Services & Institutions Practice Group. He focuses his practice in complex commercial litigation and professional liability defense. He has extensive experience defending directors and officers in claims arising from their corporate activity. Mr. Perr  is a nationally recognized authority and lecturer on creditor’s rights, and defends creditors, law firms and agencies against individual and class action allegations, involving federal and state consumer protection laws. This includes handling cases before the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act.

Mr. Perr also advises entities and individuals on matters related to compliance in the credit and collection industry, including review, implementation and auditing of policies and procedures, especially in adherence with governmental regulatory bodies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

He has served as a foreign policy intern for then United States Senator Al Gore (D-TN) and was the Chairman of the Burlington County Democratic Party. Mr. Perr also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Rutgers – Camden School of Law, teaching Election and Political Campaign Law, and has appeared in numerous national, regional and local publications and on broadcast media on the issues of politics and election law. He was also a contributing author for the twenty-volume encyclopedia Constitutions of the Countries of the World.

Mr. Perr is AV-Preeminent Peer Review Rated by Martindale Hubbell. He has conducted broadcast appearances on WPVI-TV (Channel 6 – Philadelphia), CN8 (Comcast News Network – Philadelphia), NJN, (New Jersey Network – Trenton), National Public Radio, and noted in articles including the Associated Press, Chicago Tribune, Newark Star Ledger, New York Times, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Admissions

  • Pennsylvania
  • New Jersey
  • New York
  • U.S. District Court
    • Eastern District of Pennsylvania
    • Middle District of Pennsylvania
    • Western District of Pennsylvania
    • District of New Jersey
    • District of Columbia
    • Eastern District of New York
    • Southern District of New York
    • Northern District of New York
    • Eastern District of Wisconsin
    • Eastern District of Michigan
  • U.S. Court of Appeals
    • Second Circuit
    • Third Circuit
    • Seventh Circuit
    • Eleventh Circuit
    • D.C. Circuit
  • U.S. Supreme Court

Education

  • Rutgers-Camden School of Law – J.D., International and Foreign Law with Honors
  • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey – B.A., Political Science, History and English

Professional Memberships

  • Philadelphia Bar Association
  • Director, Board of Directors, Florida Collectors Association, 2023-2024
  • Board of Directors, Association of Credit and Collection Professionals (ACA): President, 2017/2018, President-Elect, 2016, Treasurer, 2013-2014, Federal Affairs Committee Chair, 2015-2016, Regulatory Committee Chair, 2014-2015, Audit Committee Chair, 2013-2014, Members’ Attorney Program , MAP Committee, 2011-2014, Chair, 2012-2013, State Compliance Chair, Pennsylvania, 2005-2007, State Compliance Chair, New Jersey, 2011-2013, Fellow Designation, 2013, Scholar Designation
    Members’ Attorney Program Designation, 2013
  • Professional Liability Defense Federation, Miscellaneous Professional Liability & Cyber Claims Committee, Chair 2018-Present, Professional Liability Defense Quarterly, Co-Editor in Chief
  • Mid-Atlantic Collectors Association – Board of Directors, 2011-Present
  • Burlington County Bar Association, Federal Practice Committee, Chair, 2005-2006, Government Relations Committee, Co-Chair, 2009-2010
  • Burlington County Democratic Party, Chair, 2006-2009, Federal Practice Committee, Chair, 2005-2006, Government Relations Committee, Co-Chair, 2006-2009
  • New Jersey State Bar Association, Election Law Committee, Chair, 2003-2005, Federal Practice Committee, 2012-2013
  • New Jersey Supreme Court Ethics Committee – District IV, 2005-2009

Community/Civic Involvement

  • Boy Scouts of America – Cubmaster, Garden State Council, Pack 300, 2004-2005
  • March of Dimes South Jersey Division, Board of Directors, 2010-2012
  • March for Babies Executive Steering Committee, Chair, 2008-2010
  • Rutgers School of Law – Camden, Adjunct Professor of Law – Election and Political Campaign Law

Representative Matters

  • Szczurek v. Prof’l Mgmt., No. 14-4775, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 17245 (3d Cir. September 10, 2015) (In an FDCPA action, debt collector was entitled to judgment on the pleadings under Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(c), because court disagreed with debtor’s interpretation of a sentence in a debt collection letter as misleading and declined to hold debt collector liable for failing to notify consumers of rights above and beyond what was required by the FDCPA).
  • Douglass v. Convergent Outsourcing, No. 13-3588, 765 F.3d 299 (3d Cir. 2014) (The district court erred in granting the debt collector summary judgment on the debtor’s 15 U.S.C. § 1692f(8) claim where the disclosure of the account number implicated a core concern of the FDCPA, i.e., invasion of privacy, and thus, its disclosure was not benign).
  • Seamans v. Temple Univ., No. 12-4298, 744 F.3d 853 (3d Cir. 2013) (In this FCRA action, the grant of summary judgment to the university was vacated; once the borrower’s loan had been repaid, the trade line pertaining to the Loan should have “aged off” his credit report pursuant to 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(a)(4), because the Loan by that time had been placed for collection more than seven years prior).
  • Caprio v. Healthcare Revenue Recovery Group, LLC, No. 12-1846, 709 F.3d 142 (3d Cir. 2013) (Based on the court’s interpretation of a collection letter from the perspective of the applicable “least sophisticated debtor,” it determined that the substance and the form of the letter overshadowed and contradicted the validation notice, contrary to 15 U.S.C. § 1692g. It was deceptive because it could be read to have two or more meanings).
  • Lesher v. Law Offices of Mitchell N. Kay, PC, No. 10-3194, 650 F.3d 993 (3d Cir. 2011), cert. denied, 2012 U.S. LEXIS 967 (Jan. 23, 2012) (Two debt collection letters from a law firm, acting as a debt collector, were deceptive in violation of the FDCPA because they falsely implied that an attorney was involved in collecting the debt, and the least sophisticated debtor would reasonably believe that an attorney had reviewed the file and determined that legal action was appropriate).
  • Rosenau v. Unifund Corp., No. 07-3019, 539 F.3d 218 (3d Cir. 2008) (Judgment on the pleadings was improperly entered for debt collector as to consumer’s deceptive practices claims under 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(3), (10). Factual dispute existed as to whether least sophisticated consumer would think that collection letter signed “Legal Department” necessarily meant that attorney was involved in writing or sending letter).
  • Orson, Inc. v. Miramax Film Corp., No. 97-1994, 189 F.3d 377 (3d Cir. 1999), cert. denied, 2000 U.S. LEXIS 1869 (March 6, 2000) (State statute banning exclusivity in motion picture distribution after 42 days was preempted by Copyright Act; state cannot control distribution of copyrighted work contrary to statutory exclusive distribution rights).
  • Counseled client through the purchase of a debt portfolio with a face value of $2.4 billion. Fast-paced transaction with an end-of-the-year deadline.
  • Successfully forced plaintiff’s counsel to resolve a substantial class action on an individual basis, which dramatically lowered the exposure to the client. Because the nature of the case changed from a class action to a single plaintiff lawsuit the client was only required to pay a nominal settlement.
  • Obtained summary judgment on behalf of a leasing company sued as a result of a multiple fatality motor vehicle accident.  Plaintiffs alleged that the leasing company’s failure to maintain its own insurance policy on the vehicle made it responsible under a state statute requiring such companies to have insurance to pay for the damages caused by the driver of the vehicle.  The court agreed with the leasing company and ruled that noncompliance with the statute did not create a private right of action by the Plaintiffs.

Awards

  • AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated by Martindale Hubbell
  • Janis St Martin Industry Champion Award, 2022, The Association of Credit and Collection Professionals
  • New Jersey Super Lawyers®, 2006 – 2011  
  • The Legal Intelligencer and the Pennsylvania Law Weekly, “Lawyers on the Fast Track,” 2008

Publications

Selected Publications

  • Preferred Collection and ACA Tell 11th Circuit That SCOTUS Opinion in Ramirez Supports Request for Rehearing in Hunstein , Association Collectors Connection Newsletter, June 2021

  • Fourth Circuit Holds Multiple Prerecorded Calls to Obtain Location Information Do Not Violate the FDCPA, Mid-Atlantic Collectors Association Collectors Connection Newsletter, January 2013

  • Five Simple Steps to Reduce Lawsuits , July 2010
  • Much Ado Over Generic Concept of God, New Jersey Law Journal, October 3, 2005
  • Primary Concerns, New Jersey Law Journal, August 26, 2005
  • The Federal Credit and Collection Law Handbook

News

Super Lawyers Super Lawyers Best Law Firms 2023 Best Law Firms 2024 Martindale Hubbel AV Preeminent Law 360