Lawyers / Professionals

 
Leslie M. Werlin       
Partner
1800 Century Park East
8th Floor
Los Angeles, California 90067
T: 310.315.8222
F: 310.315.8210
lwerlin@mcguirewoods.com
 

Mr. Werlin's practice is concentrated in the areas of business and commercial litigation including real estate, creditors' rights, secured transactions, contract, corporate and partnership disputes.

Trial Work

Mr. Werlin has served as lead counsel in more than 30 trials that have gone to verdict. His trial experience includes the areas of contracts, business torts, real estate litigation, bankruptcy, and commercial landlord-tenant disputes. In more than 25 years of commercial and business litigation practice, he has also served as lead counsel in hundreds of commercial and business based disputes in a diverse range of areas including contracts, business torts, secured transactions, unfair competition, real estate, antitrust, trademark, and corporate and partnership responsibility.

Real Estate Litigation

Mr. Werlin has served as counsel for buyers and sellers, foreclosure trustees and lien holders in many types of real estate litigation matters, including commercial lease disputes, lenders' rights and obligations, homeowners' associations, and foreclosure actions. He was counsel in Fidelity Mortgage Trustee Service, Inc. v. Ridgegate East Homeowners Association, (1994), 27 Cal.App.4th 503; The League of Residential Neighborhood Advocates v. City of Los Angeles, 498 F .3d 1052 (9th Cir. 2007); and The League of Residential Neighborhood Advocates v. City of Los Angeles, 633 F.Supp.2d 1119 (C.D. CA 2009).

Commercial Litigation

Mr. Werlin has served as counsel in broad range of commercial disputes including breach of contract, secured transactions, the duties of corporate officers and directors, stockholders' rights, real and person property secured transactions, business torts, bankruptcy, antitrust, trademark, real estate, and employment based litigation. Over the years, his clients have included Imperial Bank, MBNA America Bank, Far East National Bank, Boys Clubs of America, Twentieth Century-Fox, and Link Staffing Services.

Employment Litigation

Mr. Werlin has served as counsel in many employment-based litigation matters including discrimination, wrongful discharge, breach of loyalty, breach of contract, and unfair competition.


Practices & Industries
Honors
  • AV Rated, Martindale-Hubbell
  • Named a Southern California "Super Lawyer," Law & Politics, 2005-2010

Previous Experience
  • Partner, Van Etten Suzumoto & Becket LLP, Los Angeles, California
  • Litigation Partner in Charge, Friedlander & Werlin LLP
  • Law Clerk, the Hon. Robert J. Kelleher, U.S. District Court, Central District of California

Publications
  • Co-author "Forum Selection Covenants in American Practice: Bremen in Perspective", Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law, Vol. 11, No. 3, 1979

Professional Affiliations
  • Los Angeles County Bar Association
  • Member, State Bar, Administration of Justice Committee
 

EDUCATION

University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, J.D., 1975

  • Order of the Coif

University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, B.A., 1972

 
 

ADMITTED

California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit