Donald Perlman is a partner in the law firm
Patton, Boggs, and Blow. He has been seen passing notes to the delegates from
Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait during negotiations on
global warming.
He is registered with the United States government as a representative of several oil producing nations, including Abu Dhabi, Oman, Quatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
He has founded a non profit organization called the Climate Council, and has obtained NGO status for it, giving him access to briefings from the United States delegation in global warming negotiations.
He has accused the IPCC publically of being too political, but in general has a very low profile. I could not find a web page for him or his law firm. Searching for Donald Perlman on Google produced many hits - none of the top ones being the Donald Perlman in question. Searching for him and his law firm together produced only one hit, a GEA discussion paper which mentioned him incidentally. Searching for his name in connection with global warming produced two hits, the one mentioned above and a link which mentioned him as a "key Washington player". the Garden State EnviroNet - EnviroNews.
His name is better known to environmentalists outside the United States than inside.
The information here is from The Heat is On by Ross Gelbspan, except for the web searches I did myself.