Leopold Z. Sher

Mr. Sher is a business lawyer whose practice is concentrated in commercial real estate and business and finance law. He also practices in the areas of: commercial litigation, health care, creditors' rights, workouts and foreclosures, commercial bankruptcy, disaster recovery, arbitration and mediation, administrative and public law, secured finance and asset based lending. Along with his practice, Mr. Sher is actively involved with many professional and trade organizations, including the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, where he served as Treasurer and a member of the Executive Board; The Association for Real Property and Infrastructure (ARPI) an organization limited in its membership to the top 50 real estate practitioners in the United States and the top 50 real estate practitioners in the United Kingdom; where he served as Treasurer and a member of the Governing Board; the Real Property Section of the American Bar Association, where Mr. Sher has served in many positions, including the Section's governing Council and as the Section Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates; the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, which selects its members (fellows) from those attorneys in the United States who serve the asset based lending industry; the American College of Mortgage Attorneys; the Business Section of the American Bar Association, particularly the Commercial Financial Services Committee of the Section; and the American Law Institute, where he is currently serving as a member of the Consultative Group, Restatement of the Law Corporate Governance, The U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration and as a member of the Consultative Group, Principles of the Law, Compliance, Enforcement, and Risk Management for Corporations, Nonprofits, and Other Organizations.  Mr. Sher is an arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association, with a special designation for arbitrating Commercial Disputes. Mr. Sher also serves on the Tulane Law School Dean's Advisory Board, whose purpose is to serve as an advisory and consultative group to the Dean of the Law School, bringing the perspective of alumni and other friends of the Law School to bear on matters of Law School policy, activities, programs and goals, and acts as an advocate to assist the Dean in advancing the interest of the school. He also is currently a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers, a trade association that represents the interests of those involved in the shopping center industry, including lenders, tenants, owners and developers. From 1986 to 1999, Mr. Sher was also a member of the Lenders' Counsel Group of the American Land Title Association (ALTA), a group limited to 75 lending lawyers who met in conjunction with the ALTA, the title insurance industry trade association.

Over the years, Mr. Sher has been actively involved in virtually every type of major business, real estate and finance transaction representing various and diverse interests as follows: major lenders, including life insurance companies, banks, finance companies and other asset based lenders, savings and loans and other lenders such as Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS), Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits (REMICS) [conduit lending], and CMBS (Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities) lenders for all categories of loans and lending arrangements including private and public financing, industrial development bond financing, public/private partnerships, New Markets Tax Credits financing, and Urban Development Action Grants); commercial developers, including developers of shopping centers, hotels, office buildings, apartment complexes, free standing retail establishments, industrial properties, condominiums, golf courses, Planned Unit Developments, historic rehabilitations, mixed-use projects, conversions, parking lots and garages, warehouses, and other traditional and nontraditional (facade donations, air rights transactions, etc.) real estate projects; businesses, including representation related to the buying and selling of businesses, structuring transactions, joint ventures and other combinations, general business advice and major contracts; landlords and tenants, which representation includes drafting of form leases and negotiation of lease agreements, construction, operation and reciprocal easement (servitude) agreements and other agreements that affect real property; owners and purchasers, which representation includes drafting and negotiation of purchase and sale agreements, construction contracts, development agreements, and acquisition and disposition in bulk of multiple properties. Mr. Sher has also represented major national and international clients in the food service, hospital, title insurance and oil and gas industries.

Mr. Sher serves as Adjunct Professor of Law for Tulane Law School where he teaches a course called “Contract Drafting.” This is a three-hour, graded course, introducing students to the principles, processes and techniques for drafting standard commercial business contracts. Mr. Sher is teaching students how to translate business deals into typical contracts, emphasizing how transactional attorneys aim to manage risks, minimize ambiguity, and draft with clarity.

On behalf of clients of the firm, Mr. Sher regularly practices before and works closely with political entities and public administrative boards and agencies, at the local, parish (county), state and national levels.

Mr. Sher has spoken extensively, both locally and nationally, on many diverse subjects including marine pollution/offshore oil leak disasters, capital markets, real estate finance, government bailouts, disaster recovery, insurance, zoning, land use, expropriation/condemnation/eminent domain, environmental law, limited liability companies, workouts, leases, title insurance, asset based lending, lending, lender liability, civil forfeiture, distressed real estate, brokerage agreements, arbitration and other areas related to his practice. Since Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Sher has spoken extensively all over the country to various business groups, professional organizations, and trade associations on disaster recovery, disaster planning and disaster management. Mr. Sher participates annually in the Tulane Law School Intersession "Transactional Boot Camp" program. He also regularly speaks on ethics and professionalism at the New Orleans Bar Association Procrastinator’s CLE Program.

Mr. Sher is active in the New Orleans community, currently serving as a board member of the Arts Council of New Orleans and the New Orleans Opera Association, where he served as Secretary from 2015-2017.