L. Rachel Lerman focuses on appellate and trial strategy in complex civil and financial restructuring cases. She has extensive experience authoring appellate briefs and writs and presenting oral argument in both federal and state courts of appeal nationwide, on a broad range of issues arising from diverse areas of practice, including commercial litigation, labor and employment law, constitutional rights, bankruptcy, antitrust, intellectual property, healthcare, legal and medical malpractice, insurance, securities, energy, and tribal law.
Before joining Akin Gump, Ms. Lerman was an associate at an appellate boutique firm in Los Angeles. Previously, she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas G. Nelson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Ms. Lerman is a member of the Los Angeles office’s diversity committee and the national women’s initiative committee, and is a recipient of Akin Gump’s Partner Recognition Award for mentoring and professional development of Associates and Counsel.
Ms. Lerman received a B.A. cum laude from Yale College and master's degrees in comparative religion and painting from Syracuse University. She received her J.D. in 1992 from the U.C. Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and advanced to doctoral candidacy in jurisprudence and social policy there. While in law school, she was a Schurman International Law Scholar and articles editor of the Berkeley Women's Law Journal. She is a member of the California Bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and numerous Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals.
Ms. Lerman is a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers. She is also a member of the executive board of the Constitutional Rights Foundation (CRF). She serves on the L.A. County Bar Association's Appellate Courts Committee and the ABA's International Courts Committee. She has been named a Southern California Super Lawyer every year since the award’s inception in 2003. She has taught, lectured, and written articles on different aspects of appellate practice.