Velvel is a founding partner of Freedman Normand Friedland LLP.
Vel is an experienced litigator known for finding creative solutions to complex problems. His practice focuses on high-risk litigation that includes consumer class actions, international disputes, and cryptocurrency/blockchain lawsuits. Vel’s clients value his responsiveness, creative solutions, and ability to achieve successful outcomes while balancing the needs of running a business.
Vel’s practice spans a diverse array of disputes across state, federal, and international trial and appellate courts.
At the trial court level, Vel currently serves as lead counsel in multiple consumer class actions across the country. He is also currently leading a seminal defamation claim against CNN that's made national headlines, and helps lead the firm's pursuit of antitrust claims against the nation's top universities, which has already resulted in $284,000,000 in preliminary settlements. In 2021, Vel obtained a $140,000,000 judgment from a federal jury after spending a month in trial. In 2023, he obtained another multi-million-dollar jury verdict, getting 100% of the contract damages he requested. Vel represented a consortium of growers, producers, and patients who sued the State of Florida for medical marijuana related issues. Vel also currently represents the heirs of a Holocaust survivor seeking to recover a Camille Pissarro masterpiece held by a Spanish-owned museum in one of the only Holocaust era cases to go to trial.
At the appellate level, Vel has successfully pursued numerous appeals in state and federal appellate courts. This includes his handling of multiple oral arguments to, e.g., win a punitive damages appeal against CNN in Florida's First District Court of Appeal, a matter of first impression before the Eleventh Circuit, and reversal before the Ninth Circuit. He recently filed a petition for certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States.
On the international side, Vel has successfully represented sovereigns and investors in global disputes involving national court litigation, international arbitration, and strategic negotiations, while managing public relations. Vel has acted as strategic global counsel to successfully prevent a foreign sovereign from illegally expropriating his client’s assets. Most recently, Vel convinced the Secretariat of ICSID to disqualify the United States' party appointed arbitrator in a bilateral investment treaty arbitration, and then argued before the panel to successfully resist the United States' motion to dismiss the case.
Vel is also active in the local legal community, where he serves on the Southern District of Florida's Local Rules Committee. Before attending law school, Velvel was ordained as a rabbi.