About Courtney R.
Courtney R. Lerch earned her J.D. from Mississippi College School of Law in 2007. Early in her legal training she worked in a variety of court and government settings. That included an internship at the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana in 2006 and an externship in the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, Criminal Appeals Division, in 2007. She served as a clerk for the Mississippi Court of Appeals in 2008 and also worked as a law clerk for Grenfell, Sledge & Stevens that same year.
After moving into private practice, Lerch joined The Wade Law Office as a lawyer in 2010. She gained admission to practice in federal court in the Southern District of Georgia the same year. By 2011 she was admitted to the Supreme Court of Colorado, and she later secured admission to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 2014. Over the years she maintained an active presence in local and state bar groups, becoming a member of the Savannah Bar Association in 2008 and joining the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers in 2011.
In 2016 she and a colleague established Schneider Lerch, LLC, where she serves as owner and lawyer. The firm handles matters across state and federal venues. Lerch’s background spans appellate and trial environments, informed by her early court work and later admissions to multiple jurisdictions. She remains a member of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the Savannah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, among other professional organizations.
Colleagues describe Lerch as a lawyer who has built experience in criminal defense practice through steady courtroom work and appellate filings. Her time in clerkships and in government appellate offices provided direct exposure to criminal appeals and court procedure. That experience carried into private practice, where cases have ranged across local and federal dockets.
Outside courtroom calendars and filings, Lerch has kept consistent ties to professional associations in Savannah and across Georgia. Those memberships reflect an ongoing engagement with peers on criminal defense and women’s issues in the profession. She maintains active admission in Georgia and Colorado and appears before federal and appellate tribunals as permitted by those admissions.
Lerch currently practices from Schneider Lerch, LLC and concentrates her work on criminal defense matters in state and federal courts.
