William Large joined the firm in November 2017. Over the last 20 years, he has developed skills in a wide variety of legal disciplines. He has worked for several different states’ attorneys general on oil & gas and energy matters and litigation. Mr. Large’s litigation experience, in state and federal courts throughout the country, includes diverse matters such as antitrust, energy transportation regulation, environmental pollution, securities and intra-corporate disputes. Participation and leadership roles in class actions and multidistrict litigation have also constituted a major portion of Mr. Large’s experience. Additionally, Mr. Large has served as outside counsel handling all legal affairs for several companies. After graduating with a B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a J.D. from Harvard Law School, Mr. Large served as a law clerk on the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for the Hon. Andrew J. Kleinfeld.
One of Mr. Large’s areas of practice which he enjoys is eDiscovery. He was the eDiscovery chair for the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill MDL. In that role, Mr. Large designed and implemented the infrastructure and assembled a team of over 30 lawyers and staff. The venture was very successful, as the team led by Large processed and reviewed over 20 TB of data in eight months. This allowed the Plaintiffs to complete discovery in less than a year, making the case ready for trial, and eventually settling, within 2 years of the tragedy itself.
Mr. Large has a wife and three daughters. He enjoys cooking, gardening and participating in and providing pro bono legal services for his daughters’ non-profit select soccer club, the Lafayette Dash. Over the years he has volunteered his time for many groups such as chairman of the Alaska Municipal Bond Bank Authority and board member of Alaska Catholic Social Services Adoption Program.
Jeffrey Thomas has over fifteen years of legal, government relations, and public policy making experience related to community and economic development; disaster recovery management; energy and environmental regulation; public-private project financing; and real estate development.
Jeffrey’s experience includes senior government executive roles in crafting budgets, legislation, programs, and regulations; legal practice experience with commercial, environmental, and real estate litigation and regulatory compliance; legislative lobbying and federal agency negotiation experience; and strategic planning counsel related to disaster resilience investment, public-private partnerships, and sustainable venture formation and growth.
Jeffrey leverages this experience to provide both traditional legal services and strategic counsel to public and private sector clients nationwide. Among recent projects, Jeffrey has advised several state and local government clients, including most recently in Kansas, Louisiana, New Jersey, and New York, among other markets, on federal agency negotiations, investment strategies, policy formation, and regulatory compliance for developing community-scale resilience plans related to coastal restoration, flood prone property relocations, food system security, renewable energy sources, and water management. Additionally, on behalf of the City of New Orleans, Jeffrey coordinated a public-private task force to craft infrastructure investment, policy, and governance strategies for improving long-term effectiveness of the city’s water management and flood protection systems.
Jeffrey also provides traditional business transaction and real estate development legal services that help ventures structure innovative public-private financing, partnerships, and development strategies. Using this approach, since 2011, Jeffrey has helped secure and structure public-private financing and community support for over $65 million in commercial blight revitalization projects. Additionally, Jeffrey advises several emerging-growth ventures and impact investors on business structuring, market entry and partnership strategies based on regulatory and investment trends.
Jeffrey counsels public and private sector clients on governmental operational efficiencies, policy formation, and program implementation based on nearly two decades of relevant experience at every level of government. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Jeffrey supervised policy development for the City of New Orleans’ long-term disaster recovery, helping to shape government programs to coordinate the use of over $1 billion in federal funds for hosing, economic development, and infrastructure investments. Prior to that role, Jeffrey’s legal practice and previous advocacy experience centered on analyzing and representing stakeholder interests within state and federal budgeting, legislative, and rule-making processes.
Jeffrey is a 2001 graduate of Tulane Law School with a certificate in energy and environmental law; and a 1994 graduate of Millersville University (PA), with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and Secondary Education.
Edward Scharfenberg, who joined the firm in March 2017, has been practicing corporate and transactional law for almost 20 years. Until the Fall of 2016, Ned lived in Berlin, Germany, where he represented a range of clients involved in financing and disposition transactions and oil and gas exploration, while serving as “outside” general counsel for start-ups and portfolio companies of private equity funds. At the behest of a client, he served on the supervisory board (“Aufsichtsrat”) of a listed German office REIT until December 2016. He is fluent in German.
Ned began his career in New York in the securitization and structured finance departments of two leading global law firms before working in various roles in-house in the finance sector. From 2007 -2011, he worked in the corporate department of Fishman Haygood, LLP, in New Orleans on diverse corporate and transactional matters, with an emphasis on mergers and acquisitions.
Ned is admitted to practice in Illinois, New York and Louisiana. He is based in Chicago.
Mary Hodges joined the firm in January 2017. Prior to joining the firm, Mary founded STL Startup Lawyer in 2014. Since then, she has served over 100 businesses and entrepreneurs in all stages of development and growth. Her practice focuses on business formations, drafting and negotiating commercial contracts, website policies, and general business counsel. Mary’s experience as a business owner and her passion for helping startups gives her a unique ability to offer clients innovative legal services. Mary started her legal career in 2011 as an associate at a St. Louis firm that offered compliance and regulatory advice to investment advisory and precious metals firms.
Mary obtained an LLM in taxation from the Washington University School of Law in 2011. She received her Law degree, magna cum laude, and Masters in Business Administration degree, magna cum laude, from St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, FL in 2010 where she served as Notes and Comments Editor for the St. Thomas University Law Review. In 2007, Mary received her Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from DePaul University in Chicago, IL where she competed on the Division I Track and Field team and received several scholar-athlete awards, including the DePaul Women’s Big East Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Mary is licensed in both the State of Missouri and Illinois (inactive) and is admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
She currently serves on the Executive Board of the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis Young Lawyers’ Division as a Member-at-Large and as co-chair on the Young Lawyers’ Division’s Mentorship Committee.
Mr. Vickers represent clients in intellectual property matters and litigation throughout State and Federal courts across the U.S. He has represented global companies as general counsel, and provided the same level of expertise to small businesses and individuals. Before law school, Mr. Vickers worked as an engineer for a large multi-national energy company.
Mr. Vickers’ practice focuses on multiple areas of intellectual property, including patent and trademark applications, related USPTO proceedings, enforcement of intellectual property rights, litigation and consultation. His background as an engineer provides unique insight into the often complicated and highly technical issues in intellectual property matters.
Mr. Vickers also handles a variety of construction and general litigation matters. Mr. Vickers was named a “Rising Star” by the SuperLawyers rating list in 2012 and 2014 through 2017, an honor earned by no more than 2.5 percent of lawyers in each state.
Mr. Vickers holds an engineering degree from Auburn University and a Juris Doctorate from Tulane University Law School. He served as the Senior Articles Editor of the Tulane Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property and as a judicial extern to the Honorable T. Michael Putnam in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, and to the Honorable Pascal F. Calogero, Former Chief Justice of the Louisiana State Supreme Court.
Zachary H. Kupperman is a founding partner of the firm and represents clients in a broad range of legal and business matters, including commercial real estate, commercial transactions, corporate finance and general business law. Mr. Kupperman has particular experience in business formation, financing, and strategic planning for entrepreneurs and start-ups.
As a real estate and business attorney, Mr. Kupperman has significant experience representing developers, investors, landlords, tenants, lenders, and financial institutions in major commercial transactions and developments, including hotels, hospitals, restaurants and retail, office multi-family, and mixed-use, including tax credit financing. He has particular experience representing lenders and borrowers in a variety of secured transactions, real estate developers in connection with the financing, acquisition, and development of commercial properties, and with zoning and land use matters.
Mr. Kupperman also has significant experience representing startups and emerging growth companies, their investors, and managers in a wide-range of corporate and commercial transactional matters. Mr. Kupperman’s practice focuses on creating and structuring new businesses, equity and debt financings (including venture capital, strategic, seed, and angel financings), joint ventures and strategic alliances, and other corporate matters. Mr. Kupperman routinely works with the top startup accelerators in Louisiana, including the Idea Village, Propeller, and 4.0 Schools. He advises clients on digital media and angel investor tax credits, commercial contracting matters, general employment and equity compensation matters, and corporate governance issues. In addition, Mr. Kupperman has represented both franchisees and franchisors in preparing and negotiating franchise agreements and franchise disclosure documentation.
Mr. Kupperman is also very active in the New Orleans community. He currently sits on the board of the Anti Defamation League, The NOCCA Institute, and the Touro Infirmary Foundation.
Outside the practice of law, Mr. Kupperman is an avid businessman and real estate developer.
Recent Transactions:
1Mark is the founder of the firm. Mark has experience representing public and private companies in merger and acquisition transactions, equity and debt securities offerings, venture capital transactions, and corporate governance matters. Mark is also an experienced litigator and has represented individuals in personal injury actions (including workers’ compensation), consumer protection claims and large businesses in multi-national litigation.
Mark is an active member of the Louisiana Economic Development Department’s Working Group on Capital Availability and the founder of the Louisiana Venture and Angel Capital Report, the only statistical analysis of venture and angel capital in the state of Louisiana. Mark is a mentor of the Law Without Walls (http://www.lawwithoutwalls.org/), a member of the Advisory Board of the LSBA’s Justice Entrepreneur’s Program, mentor for the Transactional Boot Camp program at Tulane Law School, and a 2014 Super Lawyer in the field of Corporate/Securities Law.
Following law school, Mark served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ivan L.R. Lemelle, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Mark has worked at one of the nation’s premier securities and corporate law firms in Silicon Valley prior to starting his own firm.
911 Washington Ave
St. Louis, MO 63101
855-781-7774
855-781-7774
650 Poydras Street, Suite 1130
New Orleans, LA 70130
504-265-9955
