After four years of service in the U.S. Navy and receiving an Honorable Discharge, Philip E. Weiss was graduated cum laude by San Francisco State University, where he earned degrees in Political Science and Philosophy. He thereafter earned a Juris Doctorate at the University of San Francisco, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the U.S.F. Maritime Law Journal, a leading academic periodical. After law school he founded and served for five years as Editor-in-Chief of The Maritime Law Practitioner, which provided to law libraries and maritime lawyers (nationally and internationally) a monthly summary of developments in maritime law distributed. Mr. Weiss is a respected author and speaker on maritime law issues and has served at trials as a maritime law expert. He has, for 28 of his 30 years of practice, successfully represented hundreds of marinas, boatyards, banks, municipalities, Port Districts and other clients in connection with a broad array of maritime issues, including those involving maritime “necessaries” liens, trespassing/abandoned vessels, vessel arrests, wharfage and other maritime contracts, oil pollution, allisions/other maritime torts, and negotiations with holders of competing liens. For 10 years Mr. Weiss has served as an Adjunct Professor of Maritime Law at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, where he periodically taught a “survey” class. He also serves as a voting member of the San Diego Harbor Safety Committee. Between 2008 and 2010 Mr. Weiss sat by appointment of the California Bar Association as the Chairman of the Admiralty and Maritime Law Advisory Commission, which established the examination and standards for formal certification as a Specialist in Admiralty and Maritime Law. During these years he also served as a voting member of the California Bar Association’s Board of Legal Specialization, which certified him as a Certified Specialist in Admiralty and Maritime Law.