Jonah A. Toleno

Jonah A. Toleno

Ms. Toleno is Of Counsel to the Firm. She is licensed to practice in California and Arizona. Her practice is focused on financial services law, securities arbitration and litigation, business litigation, and alternative dispute resolution. She appears regularly as trial counsel in matters pending before state and federal courts and in various arbitration forums, including the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA, formerly known as the NASD) and the American Arbitration Association. She represents a wide range of individual and commercial clients in business disputes, complex securities litigations, securities fraud and Ponzi scheme prosecutions, customer-brokerage securities arbitrations (typically before FINRA), intra-industry brokerage employment disputes, and commercial transactions. Her intra-industry cases include employment law cases, FINRA expungement requests, firm transition matters, trade secret prosecution and defense and Broker Protocol consultation. She acts as outside counsel to businesses including registered broker-dealers and investment advisory firms, providing guidance and representation on regulatory, operations, compliance, employment, and corporate issues. She also represents individuals and business entities before FINRA and the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in investigation and enforcement actions.

Ms. Toleno has an "AV" (Preeminent) ranking under the Martindale-Hubbell attorney ratings system, with a 5.0 out of 5.0 overall rating in Securities Law, General Practice and Business Law. Martindale-Hubbell reserves the "AV" ranking for those attorneys whose peers rank him or her at the highest level of professional excellence and who adhere to the highest professional standards of conduct, ethics, reliability, and diligence. In 2020, SuperLawyers named Ms. Toleno one of the Top Female Attorneys in San Diego. She has been named consecutively as a "SuperLawyer" by SuperLawyers from 2017 through 2022; a "Top Attorney" in Litigation by San Diego Magazine in 2017; and a "Best of the Bar" recipient in the San Diego Business Journal every year from 2014 to 2018. In 2018, the San Diego County Bar Association recognized Ms. Toleno with the Community Service Award for Commitment to Diversity.

Clients appreciate Ms. Toleno's attentiveness to their matters, her firm but personable approach in litigation, and her ability to resolve even the most complex and contentious of cases. While adept at trying cases, she regularly obtains favorable settlements on behalf of her clients.

Ms. Toleno attended the University of California at Berkeley, where she majored in Legal Studies and minored in Music. She obtained her law degree from the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, California. While at U.C. Hastings, she was a staff editor for the Hastings Women's Law Journal and served as President of various student organizations. She is a leader in local community and bar organizations. She currently serves as Chair of Lawyers Club of San Diego's Judicial Endorsements Committee, which conducts thorough inquiries into qualifications and backgrounds of potential San Diego Superior Court Judge nominees and adjudicates their requests for Lawyers Club endorsement to the Governor. She is also Co-Chair of Lawyers Club's Bench Bar Committee, which serves as a liaison between the San Diego Judiciary and legal community, facilitating regular communication between judges and attorneys. She is a current Board Member and Past President of the Filipino American Lawyers of San Diego, where she currently serves as Co-Chair of its Community Outreach Committee and collaborates routinely with numerous other bar organizations. She also is active with the San Diego County Bar Association.

Ms. Toleno speaks regularly on panels before bar organizations and at local law schools on topics including financial services regulations, securities, litigation, arbitration and dispute resolution, law practice management, marketing, networking. She also serves as a volunteer in various capacities, including organizing judge panel events to increase interest among bar members in appointment to the local Bench, participating in the San Diego County Bar Association’s anti-bullying initiatives, judging the University of San Diego School of Law Moot Court Competition, mentoring law students and young lawyers informally and through local bar associations, and volunteering with Friends of Scott Foundation, Urban Street Angels, and her children's schools and sports leagues. She is fluent in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines.

Professional Associations and Memberships

• San Diego County Bar Association
  • Business and Corporate Law Section
  • Civil Litigation Section
  • Alternative Dispute Resolution Section
  • Employment Law Section
• Past President, Filipino-American Lawyers of San Diego, 2015 - 2017; Board Member, 2015 - Present
  • Co-Chair, Community Outreach Committee
• Lawyers Club of San Diego
  • Chair, Judicial Endorsements Committee, 2019 - Present
  • Co-Chair, Bench Bar Committee, 2019 - Present
  • Past Co-Chair, Diverse Women's Committee, 2017 - 2019
  • Life and Law Committee Member
  • Endorsements Committee, Past Member
• Association of Business and Trial Lawyers, San Diego Chapter
• Pan-Asian Lawyers of San Diego
• National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Member, Affiliate Past President
• National Filipino American Lawyers Association, Member, Affiliate Past President
  • Awards and Endorsements Committee Member 2018 - Present
• San Diego Chamber of Commerce, Past Member
• American Bar Association, Past National Advisory Board Member
• Filipino Bar Association of Northern California, Past Secretary