News & Insights

Former U.S. Navy officers recognized for professional achievement, leadership and continued commitment to service

SAN DIEGO (November 9, 2026) – Steven Otto and Sean Southard, both former U.S. Navy officers and partners with Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson (CGS3), have been recognized by the San Diego Business Journal as Veteran Business Leaders of Influence for 2026. Honorees were profiled in a special San Diego Business Journal supplement which published Monday, November 2, and later celebrated at a special University Club event held on Thursday, November 5.

An annual tribute to Veterans Day, the awards honor San Diego-area veterans whose professional accomplishments, community impact and leadership reflect a continued commitment to service beyond the military.

Otto and Southard exemplify the leadership, discipline and problem-solving skills developed through military service, bringing those qualities to their work at CGS3, one of Southern California’s leading commercial real estate law firms.

Sean Southard: Building a Firm and Shaping the Industry

A founding partner of CGS3, Sean Southard has helped guide the firm’s growth over the past 13 years into a recognized leader in commercial real estate law, with a national portfolio of high-profile transactions.

Today, he is a leading attorney in the field, with a record of success negotiating and completing leasing transactions totaling millions of square feet across all asset classes, including office, industrial, retail, and life science. A frequent lecturer at legal and real estate industry programs, Southard previously served as an associate at Cox, Castle & Nicholson and as a partner at Allen Matkins before helping to found CGS3 in 2013. A graduate of the University of San Diego (USD), Southard earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations before being commissioned as a U.S. Navy officer. He served tours in Iraq and Somalia, experiences that honed his leadership, focus, and discipline – qualities he now brings to the fast-paced world of commercial real estate law.

Steven Otto: Combining Legal Acumen with Technical Expertise

Otto brings a distinctive blend of legal, technical, and operational insight to his practice, which spans the acquisition, development, leasing, licensing, financing, and sale of complex office, industrial, retail, energy, and mixed-use projects. He has negotiated major master developer and merchant builder agreements, as well as private and public development deals for large-scale retail and residential projects. His clients include international corporations, REITs, developers, and joint ventures, and he played a key legal role supporting one of the nation’s largest nuclear power generating sites.

Before joining CGS3, he served as senior in-house counsel for Pinnacle West Capital Corporation and practiced with Latham & Watkins and Luce Forward Hamilton & Scripps (now Dentons), where he became a partner.

With a Bachelor’s degree in engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, an M.B.A. from UCSD’s Rady School of Management, and a J.D. from George Washington University Law School – along with two deployments to the Persian Gulf – Otto continues to draw on his military, technical and educational background to craft innovative solutions to complex real estate challenges.

About Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3)

CGS3 is a recognized leader among a new generation of commercial real estate law firms with practice areas covering the entire commercial real estate life cycle, including finance, acquisition/disposition, entity formation, tax, construction and development, land use, leasing, distressed asset workouts and dispute resolution.  Earning a reputation as one of California’s leading commercial real estate law firms, CGS3 recruits some of the state’s top real estate attorneys from both large law firms and senior in-house positions.  For more information, visit http://www.cgs3.com.