Profile

Lauri Cleary

Lerch, Early & Brewer, Chtd.
Awards Program
Committee Member

My Contact Information

Lerch, Early & Brewer, Chtd.
Bethesda, MD
Phone 1: (301) 657-0176

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Chapter Location

Washington DC

Bio

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Lauri Cleary, a trial lawyer who co-chairs Lerch Early’s litigation practice, helps businesses, employers, and individuals resolve disputes in and out of the courtroom throughout Maryland, DC, and Virginia. Lauri negotiates and litigates employment, commercial, real estate, and white-collar criminal defense cases.

Clients interviewed by leading legal directory Chambers USA call her “a great litigator who isn’t afraid to fight—she can be charming or forceful depending on what the situation calls for,” and noting that her “ability to see the entire battlefield has been a tremendous asset. She sees how pieces on the board will be moving." Lauri’s three decades of commercial litigation and white collar criminal defense experience allow her to envision multiple paths to achieving her clients’ goals. Her common sense and intellectual curiosity drive her desire to understand and advocate for her clients’ interests.

She helps businesses and their owners assert and defend claims related to contracts, real estate and eminent domain, corporate and partnership issues, non-competes, and other commercial matters. She also defends management in employment litigation, such as discrimination and wage-hour claims. Religious organizations rely on Lauri to handle a wide range of matters related to their religious and educational operations, real estate holdings, and tax-exempt status, including cases involving First Amendment religious freedoms. Lauri represents individuals who are witnesses, subjects, or targets of white-collar criminal investigations and defends prosecutions in state and federal courts. Lauri also represents lawyers and others facing professional responsibility complaints.

As one client said, Lauri is “100% committed to [my] best interests.” She listens intently, probing so she really gets to know each person and problem. In difficult times, her clients appreciate Lauri’s gentle wit and the feeling that she will take care of them.

A recent past president of Maryland’s largest local bar association, the 2,500-member Bar Association of Montgomery County, and immediate past president of the Montgomery County Bar Foundation, Lauri is well-known to lawyers and judges across the state. She has successfully litigated trial and appellate cases before state and federal courts and administrative agencies throughout Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia. She currently is permanent member of the Judicial Conference of the Fourth Circuit, a Fellow of the Maryland Bar Foundation, and serves on the Alumni Board of the University of Maryland's Francis King Carey School of Law.

Lauri is a lifelong resident of Montgomery County who tries to make time to become a more proficient pianist, horseback rider, and golfer. She is a parishioner at Our Lady of Mercy in Potomac, where she has served as a lector since 2003.

Practice Areas

  • Appeals
  • Asset Forfeiture/Restitution
  • Complex Commercial Litigation
  • Compliance Counseling
  • Congressional Investigations
  • Corporate Crime
  • Corporate Governance
  • Government Contracting, Bid Protests and the False Claims Act
  • Government Investigations
  • Insurance
  • Qui Tam; Whistleblower Defense
  • Title IX
  • Trade Secrets
  • Trials
  • White Collar Crime