At age 46, Lee Weintraub was the youngest recipient ever of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Bar’s Construction Law Committee. Mr. Weintraub is also an adjunct professor of law at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law teaching construction law. In 2009, 2013, and 2022 Florida Trend magazine named him one of Florida’s Legal Elite, an honor bestowed on only the top 2% of Florida lawyers.
In the 2020 edition of The Best Lawyers in America®, Mr. Weintraub was recognized as Lawyer of the Year in Construction Litigation, an honor only bestowed upon one attorney for each specialty practice and location. Additionally, he has been voted by his peers as one of the Best Lawyers in America© every year since 2006. He has also been selected by Florida Super Lawyers every year since 2007, which names Florida’s top 5% of lawyers as chosen by their peers. Mr. Weintraub has been recognized by Chambers USA – America’s Leading Business Lawyers every year since 2003. Chambers USA noted he focuses on licensing and construction defect litigation, but is particularly renowned for his expertise in the Construction Lien Law.
Mr. Weintraub is Board Certified in Construction Law by the Florida Bar and serves as Vice Chair of the Firm’s Construction Law Practice Group. Since passing the construction law board certification exam, he has served as a board certification exam course instructor every year the course has been offered. He is a certified arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and, as a lawyer, represents owners, developers, contractors, subcontractors, design professionals, bond sureties and other commercial entities in litigation, arbitration and transactions. He is a frequent lecturer statewide, nationally and internationally on construction related topics.
The Firm’s Public, Private Partnership (P3) practice team is led by Mr. Weintraub along with Vice Chair Jennifer Drake. This multi-disciplinary team of professionals is experienced in development, construction, government, real estate, corporate, finance, procurement, and land use. Mr. Weintraub helped draft, negotiate and advocate for the P3 legislation that became law in Florida in 2013 and all its subsequent amendments. He is a frequent lecturer and author on the nuances of how to structure P3 projects. He is also a founding member and former Chair of the Florida Council for Public/Private Partnerships, a non-profit consortium of public and private sector organizations working together to further P3 opportunities. In 2019, Mr. Weintraub was invited by the United States Department of Commerce Commercial Law Development Program to travel with them to Asia to train the governments of eight Asian countries in public/private partnerships. His experience has included meetings with the President of the Maldives, Parliament of Nepal, and government officials in Singapore, Bangladesh, and Mongolia. Most recently, he was invited to train Kenyan government on P3 initiatives.
EXPERIENCE
- Acted as co-lead counsel for the Louisiana State University Property Foundation’s public/private partnership development called the Nicholson Gateway Project, the largest development project in the history of LSU, featuring a multi-phased bundled package of facilities with a total estimated development budget of $400 million.
- Drafted the contract documents for the Government of Puerto Rico in the development of university student housing and parking.
- Successfully prosecuted multi-million dollar defect and delay claims in litigation and arbitration in federal and state courts and arbitrations on behalf of developers, owners, contractors, subcontractors, engineers and performance bond sureties. He specializes in large multi-party defect and delay claims and construction lien claims.
- Represented various municipalities in P3 redevelopment projects.
- Successfully defended contractors, subcontractors, building inspectors and building officials in license grievance proceedings in front of various boards of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and local licensing boards.
- Handled the transactional aspects of the development of major, highly visible retail and mixed use complexes, including zoning negotiations, licensure, contract drafting and negotiation, and strategic structuring of the contractual relationships and documents.
- Represented nationally prominent clients in complex real property litigation and transactional matters.
- Successfully defended large national surety companies against multi-million dollar claims brought by large international contractors.
- Filed numerous construction license applications of various sources with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and local licensing boards for qualifiers, financially responsible officers, transfers of license, qualification of multiple entities, and related applications.
- Tried numerous lengthy cases before juries, judges and arbitrators resulting in verdicts, judgments and mid-trial settlements favorable to the firm’s clients.
- Negotiated complex and contentious project close-outs of highly visible and prominent public and private projects
- Successfully defended in international arbitration a terminated subcontractor working on the US Air Force Base in Qatar, who was then sued for over $10 million. The subcontractor was found not liable for any of that sum and instead won an award on its counterclaim in excess of $8 million.
PROFESSIONAL / COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
- An active member of the legal and civic community, Mr. Weintraub currently serves on the Executive Committee of The Florida Bar Real Property, Probate & Trust Law (RPPTL) Section – the largest Section of the Bar that includes, among other things, the state’s construction and development lawyers. He previously served two terms as Chair of the Florida Bar’s Construction Law Committee and one term as Chair of the Broward County Construction Law Committee.
- An active member of the legal and civic community, Mr. Weintraub served two terms as Chair of the Florida Bar’s Construction Law Committee and one term as Chair of the Broward County Construction Law Committee.
- He is the creator and chair for the first three years of the Florida Bar’s Construction Law Institute, one of the largest State Bar run construction law conferences in
the country.
- In 2017, Mr. Weintraub was elected Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers for his outstanding legal ability, experience and high standards of professional and ethical conduct in the practice of real estate law.
- Lee Weintraub founded the firm’s charity Becker Helping Hands in 2003. The non-profit helps hospitalized children and their families year round and statewide by delivering high-end toys and gifts. Learn more by visiting www.beckerhelpinghands.org.
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