NEWSMAKERS
LEGAL
Shapiro, Blasi, Wasserman & Hermann has
named David J. DePiano as partner. DePiano has been with the firm for three years. Before joining the firm, he handled high-stakes products liability matters and contractual disputes for Fortune 50 companies at an international trial firm. His areas of practice also include business and commercial transactions and contracts, transactional commercial and residential real estate, including real estate closings and title work.
DePiano earned his Juris Doctor at Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad Law School, and he has served as an adjunct professor at Nova Southeastern since 2010. He is admitted to the Florida Bar.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
The International Downtown Association has appointed Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Laura Simon to the Nighttime Economy Council. She will work with five other members representing downtown Orlando, Jacksonville, Lower East Side New York, Denver and Winnipeg, to create best practices for developing a night-time economy for established, growing and emerging downtown urban districts. Simon has worked for the Delray Beach DDA since 2010 and was promoted to executive director in 2015.
FINANCE
Trez Forman Capital Group, a direct private commercial real estate lender, has added Scott Mehlman as senior associate. Previously, Mehlman served as vice president of acquisitions for Colony Hills Capital where his responsibilities ranged from sourcing, modeling and evaluating new deals to raising capital for acquisitions or refinances. He was the company’s chief underwriter, overseeing the acquisition valuation process for more than $500 million worth of multifamily transactions. Prior to joining Colony Hills Capital, he served as director for AIC Capital, a private equity real estate group focused on value-add, distressed real estate.
Mehlman began his career with The RADCO Companies, the largest privately held multifamily owner and operator in Atlanta as an acquisitions analyst, and was later promoted to director of analytics. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Gov. Rick Scott has appointed Darcy Davis, chief executive officer of the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, to the Palm Beach State College District Board of Trustees.
Davis, of Palm Beach Gardens, is appointed for a term beginning April 5 and ending May 31, 2021. She replaces Charles Cross Jr. who served as chairman of the five-member board.
Davis joined the Health Care District in July 2011 and has served in several roles that include chief financial officer and chief operating officer, prior to her promotion. Before joining the district, she served in executive positions including senior vice president and chief financial officer for a complex academic medical center, and she has held other key financial and operational roles over her 25 years in the health care industry. She earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Mercer University and a master’s degree in health care administration from Troy State University.
The appointment is subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate.
RECOGNITION
Theodore J. Leopold, from the law firm Cohen Milstein, has been selected for inclusion in The National Law Journal’s 2018 Energy and Environmental Trailblazer supplement. The publication highlights Leopold’s role as lead trial counsel in several cases concerning environmental protection.
Jones, Foster, Johnston & Stubbs P.A. announced that the NYU Law Alumni of Color Association (LACA) has recognized litigation shareholder Grasford Smith as a 40 Under 40 Rising Star at the organization’s 2018 Spring Dinner on April 6. NYU LACA promotes and supports the professional development and general advancement of the law school’s alumni and students of color, and seeks to more fully involve alumni, students and faculty of color in the educational, social and intellectual life of the law school.
Smith is the former first vice president of NYU LACA. He is actively involved in various industry and community organizations and is consistently recognized among his peers by prestigious industry publications. He concentrates his practice on complex commercial litigation, intellectual property litigation and transactional matters and has represented a diverse clientele, including Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, athletic leagues, technology companies and a United States congressman, in addition to a variety of small and medium-sized businesses.
Florida Bar President-elect Michelle R. Suskauer has been honored with the Woman Lawyer of the Year Award by the Past Presidents Committee of the South Palm Beach County Chapter of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers.
Suskauer is an AV-rated attorney by Martindale-Hubbell, and she has been recognized in the annual Florida Super Lawyers Magazine as one of Florida’s top criminal defense attorneys and by Florida Trend magazine as one of Florida’s “Legal Elite” in its annual statewide poll of attorneys. She earned a degree in communications from Boston University in 1988 and received her law degree from American University in 1991. Suskauer is a partner with Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein P.A., a firm that focuses on criminal defense and finance fraud with offices in West Palm Beach, Miami, Los Angeles and New York.