In over thirty years of practice, Lee Applebaum has worked with regional and national clients on a broad spectrum of business and litigation matters.  His current practice focus is two-fold: appellate litigation and mediation.

He clerked in Pennsylvania’s Superior Court for the Honorable Phyllis W. Beck, and has argued appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, in the Supreme Courts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, in Pennsylvania’s Superior and Commonwealth Courts, and in New Jersey’s Appellate Division.

Lee has been a Judge Pro Tempore with Philadelphia’s Commerce Court since 2006, and has served as a mediator and arbitrator.  He has also written on the subjects of mediation and arbitration.

He is widely published on a number of legal topics, including the critical relationship between lawyers and their clients. Lee is locally and nationally recognized as one of the leaders in promoting the development of specialized business courts in the United States, and is among only a handful of lawyers honored as a charter member of the American College of Business Court Judges.

Representative Matters

• Represented a condominium board before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, successfully arguing that the board’s decision should be governed by the Business Judgment Rule, reversing the Superior Court.
• Successfully represented a quasi-government entity in the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit where the Court affirmed a judgment in the client’s favor based upon res judicata and collateral estoppel.
• Successfully argued before the Superior Court of Pennsylvania that there was no coverage under an insurance policy based upon the total pollution exclusion.
• Successfully argued before the Superior Court of Pennsylvania that the trial court erred in sending the case to arbitration.
• Represented numerous clients since 2006 in zoning appeals to the Commonwealth Court, including reversals of adverse lower court and Zoning Board decisions.
• As a mediator, Lee has successfully mediated matters to resolution involving real estate disputes, sales of businesses, internal business disputes, breach of contract claims, accounting malpractice, insurance coverage, and tortious inference claims.