Neil S. Lerner

Neil is a partner in Cox Wootton Lerner Griffin & Hansen, LLP (CWL), a regional law firm serving the Western U.S. and Pacific Rim. He practices maritime and transportation law. He’s been designated a Southern California "Super Lawyer" for 2012-2024 and been recognized by Best Lawyers in America since 2021. He represents domestic and foreign insurers in first and third-party cases, and local maritime and transportation companies in business litigation.

Neil has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, Forbes Magazine and LA Magazine. He was one of the first Certified Admiralty & Maritime Law Specialists in California (2012-2/2018) and served for several terms on the state's Admiralty and Maritime Law Advisory Commission until 2/2018.

His emerging practice area is advising private equity in their due diligence. Neil has provided transportation legal advice to Och-Ziff re its participation in Uber’s Series E Financing, ABRY Partners re its acquisition of SambaSafety, Carlyle Group re its acquisition of CB URS Holdings Corporation, York Capital Management re its acquisition of Mode Transportation LLC, Mode Transportation LLC in connection with its effort to acquire TSG, Mode Transportation LLC in connection with its effort to acquire SunteckTTS, Olympus Partners in connection with its effort to acquire Superior Bulk Logistics and Gamut Capital Management, L.P. and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation in connection with their investment in PS Logistics in September 2021.

Neil often speaks on panels re transportation law issues. He was interviewed recently in Lawyer Monthly Magazine and, from that interview, spoke in Seattle, in a prescient speech entitled "Change is Everywhere in the Maritime and Transportation Industries," which forecasted the disruption in transportation stemming from driverless technology, blockchain, the emergence of state courts into transportation and the influx of private equity. On April 12, 2024, he spoke to AMUSF on the "Dive Boat Conception" incident. On July 24, 2024 he presented to AIMU on "The Conception Dive Boat Fire," a matter he's involved in since 2019.

Neil is best known for beating notorious fraudster Rex DeGeorge, in a major insurance fraud case, which started off the coast of Italy and ended in downtown LA with DeGeorge going to federal prison for sinking his vastly over-insured yacht on its maiden voyage in the Med. His true crime book about that 12 year saga, which involved “credible” death threats, Hollywood insiders and ancient maritime doctrines, and which Federal Judge J. Spencer Letts called "the single most incredible story I’ve ever heard from the stand," is entitled "An Act of Piracy," and is contracted with NY publisher Morgan James.

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