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San Diego Business Journal Honors CGS3 Partner Sean Southard as One of the Region’s Top Business Leaders
Sean Southard lauded SDBJ’s SD500
SAN DIEGO (November 24, 2025) – Sean Southard, founding partner of Crosbie Gliner Schiffman Southard & Swanson LLP (CGS3), has once again been recognized by the San Diego Business Journal (SDBJ) as one of the region’s most influential business leaders. Southard is featured in the publication’s annual SD500 issue, which celebrates 500 individuals shaping San Diego’s business landscape and broader community. This marks the third consecutive year he has received the honor.
According to the SDBJ, the SD500 issue – published November 24th – highlights visionary leaders whose expertise, innovation and impact have helped define how the region has evolved over time.
A top commercial real estate attorney, Southard brings a rare combination of legal acumen, leadership, and discipline to his practice. Before co-founding CGS3 in 2013, he was a partner in a Big Law firm. He was also a U.S. Navy officer, spending four years aboard a guided missile cruiser during deployments to Iraq and Somalia, and serving in both Operation Desert Storm and Operation Restore Hope.
Over the course of his career, Southard has earned a reputation as a master of complex, high-velocity real estate transactions. He has negotiated and closed leasing and investment deals totaling millions of square feet across all sectors of commercial real estate – including office, life science, industrial, and luxury retail. His expertise also extends to purchase and sale agreements, sale-leaseback and ground lease transactions, as well as development, property management, and other agreements related to the use and development of real property.
As one of CGS3’s five founding partners, Southard helped establish the firm’s “different by design” approach – a client-first, collaborative model that has fueled the firm’s rapid growth, attracted a marquee roster of institutional clients, and cemented its reputation as a leader in commercial real estate law across California and beyond.
A frequent lecturer at legal and real estate industry conferences, Southard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in international relations from the University of San Diego (USD) and a Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.
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 & 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 corporate firms and senior in-house positions. For more information, visit http://www.cgs3.com.