With over 20 years of experience, Jodi is familiar with all aspects of commercial real estate finance, acquisition, and sale transactions, with significant experience drafting and negotiating loan documents for single and multiple lender transactions; purchase and sale agreements; and conducting due diligence, including analysis of title commitments and surveys; zoning reports, opinion letters; and borrower organizational documents. She focuses primarily on the structuring, negotiating, and closing of financial transactions such as mortgage loans, secured and unsecured lines of credit, construction loans, and retail and commercial leasing.

Jodi represents institutional, non-institutional, and private equity lenders to provide permanent and construction financing, leasing, acquisition, and sale of multi-family residential, commercial, hospitality, retail, and mixed-use properties. She represents buyers and sellers of commercial properties in transactional matters, including acquisitions, dispositions, and the refinance of assets, as well as transactions involving I.R.C. Section 1031 Exchanges. Her experience includes representing the lead lender and agent in the financing and syndication of a $141 million acquisition and construction financing project in Orange County, New York; and representing the purchaser/borrower in the acquisition and financing of a multi-family portfolio in Jackson, Mississippi.

Jodi also represents landlords and tenants in commercial and retail lease negotiations, lease assignments, sublease agreements, modifications and extensions, and termination agreements for retail spaces and office buildings.

Additionally, Jodi consults with clients about business transactions, including the organization of entities; drafting stockholder, partnership, and operating agreements; and preparing employment contracts.

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James J. Costello Jr., Co-Chair of the firm’s Estate, Trust, and Tax Law Practice Group, focuses his practice on wealth preservation, estate planning and administration, litigation and disputes among beneficiaries, general federal and state tax law and controversies, and the formation, dissolution, purchase, sale, and mergers of all types of closely held business entities.

Jim represents individuals in all aspects of general and sophisticated estate planning. This includes drafting wills, lifetime and testamentary trusts, powers of attorney, health care directives, prenuptial and cohabitation agreements, employing sophisticated strategies when warranted matters to preserve family wealth, including family limited liability companies (“LLCs”), dynasty trusts, and charitable trusts.

His representation of fiduciaries includes all aspects of estate and trust administration, including preparation and filing of federal and state estate and income tax returns, representation in IRS and New Jersey Division of Taxation audits, litigation and disputes among beneficiaries, preparation and filing of federal and state estate and inheritance tax returns, and defending those returns on audit.

Jim handles federal and state tax disputes, including collection matters, appeals, and representation in U.S. and New Jersey Tax Courts.

Small business owners look to Jim for assistance not only with the formation, dissolution, purchase, and sale of closely held businesses, but also as a discussion partner concerning strategies in connection with the transition of ownership to younger generations. He also represents individuals and entities in residential and commercial real estate transactions.

Elderly and incapacitated individuals and their families engage Jim for counsel regarding guardianships, asset protection planning including irrevocable trusts and Medicaid spend-downs, as well as preparing and filing Medicaid applications.

Jim has published articles and lectured extensively to civic and professional groups about a variety of estate planning and tax law topics.  He is a former Trustee and Advisory Board Council member of the Greater New Jersey Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, now known as Alzheimer’s New Jersey, a former officer of the Bernardsville Library Foundation, Inc., and former member of the Vestry of the Church of St. John on the Mountain in Bernardsville.

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Sandra Jarva Weiss, Chair of the Norris McLaughlin Health Care & Life Sciences Law Practice Group, has been practicing health care law for over 30 years and has extensive experience in all areas of health care regulation. She has designed numerous compliance programs, and counsels clients on compliance with the Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Statute. Sandra has counseled clients on federal and state patient privacy laws, as well as Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement requirements. She has extensive practical experience, having served as in-house counsel for a large teaching hospital system.

Sandra’s experience includes regulatory compliance, mergers, acquisitions, strategic affiliations of health and health-related businesses, and developing corporate compliance plans for health care entities. She is experienced in structuring the development of entities, such as imaging centers and ambulatory surgical centers. Sandra has handled physician contracts, employment agreements, medical staff grievance proceedings, disciplinary proceedings, and termination proceedings. She is well-versed in HIPAA privacy compliance, compliance with Joint Commission standards, managed care contracting for hospitals and medical providers, physician-hospital organization contracts, clinical trial agreements, and corporate work for health care institutions, such as lease and supply agreements.

Sandra’s clients include hospitals, physician groups, health care providers, medical device and equipment companies, PHOs, management service organizations, foundations, rehabilitation centers, and pharmaceutical companies. She also assists clients in the ongoing education and training of their employees in compliance with applicable health care regulations.

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John F. Lushis Jr., a Member of the firm and Co-Chair of the Economic Development Law Practice, focuses his practice on real estate, commercial transaction law, and environmental law.

John provides counsel on many types of transactions, including leases, acquisitions and divestitures, tax-exempt and conventional financings, brownfields redevelopment, and an array of commercial agreements. He has worked on multi-million-dollar loans and major tax-exempt financings for businesses and non-profits, including Cetronia Ambulance Corps, Lafayette College, Lehigh University, Moravian College, and St. Luke’s Hospital. John has also been involved in tax increment financing projects, including Hamilton Crossings Retail Complex and West Hills Business Center. He serves as solicitor for Lehigh County Industrial Development Authority, and previously was solicitor to Northampton County New Jobs Corp, Northampton County General Purpose Authority, and Lehigh Valley Economic Investment Corp.

With the growth of green energy projects in the United States, John has become involved in solar leases. One aspect of this involvement is his representation of property owners interested in leasing their property to entities that desire to construct solar panel facilities or “solar panel farms” on the property.

In late 2015, John became involved in “P3” projects (public-private partnerships), and is a lead architect of a first-of-its-kind P3 project in Pennsylvania. This project, which includes a novel financing structure, will allow Northampton County to replace or rehabilitate numerous bridges at substantial savings of cost and time compared to traditional methods. The project has become a model for other P3 projects and has received statewide and national attention. As an outgrowth of the project, John assisted in drafting legislation signed by Gov. Wolf in October 2017 to allow counties having a certain population, such as Northampton County, to construct a new jail using a P3 transaction structure.

As one of the firm’s corporate environmental counsel, John focuses on soil and groundwater issues and other environmental issues for various businesses.

John is registered to practice in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and his knowledge of intellectual property is a valuable resource for clients who have projects and transactions in this area.

John has represented prominent entities including Always Bagels, BB&T, Health Network Labs, Lehigh University, LifePath, Melting Pot Restaurants, and Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem.

For over 22 years, John was in-house counsel for Bethlehem Steel, where he was co-lead counsel on the sale of assets to the International Steel Group for $1.5 billion to companies owned by Wilbur Ross, the United States Secretary of Commerce. While at Bethlehem Steel, John was heavily involved with brownfield redevelopment of the corporation’s Bethlehem property, and directed the development and implementation of strategies to manage substantial assets and liabilities associated with more than 75 of Bethlehem Steel’s facilities and properties in Pennsylvania, across the U.S., and internationally. During his career, he has been involved in transactions and financings totaling billions of dollars.

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Edward G. Sponzilli, a Member of the firm, is a New Jersey Supreme Court Certified Civil Trial Attorney with 46 years of experience in complex corporate and commercial litigation, employment and education matters.

He has litigated cases in many different jurisdictions, including Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, in addition to the states where he is admitted. He primarily handles complex corporate and commercial matters, as well as employment litigation relating to restrictive covenant, wrongful termination, CEPA, employment discrimination, and sexual harassment. He has defended public entities, primarily educational institutions, and has represented parties in products liability, toxic tort, and professional malpractice claims. Additionally, Ed has handled matters involving franchise practices, intellectual property, health care, estate, real estate, construction, antitrust, commodities, civil RICO, defamation, Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumer fraud, shareholder disputes, civil rights, constitutional law, sports law, personal injury, insurance and reinsurance coverage matters, dram shop, alcohol, defamation, business tort, criminal, and education law matters.

In higher education, Ed has not only litigated matters for colleges and universities but has been consulted for advice on numerous issues, and he has authored opinion letters on a variety of topics. He was part of the legal team which handled the largest merger of higher educational institutions in U.S. history. He has been a member of and lecturer for the National Association of College and University Attorneys for over 35 years.

Ed is a 2008 recipient of the Professionalism Award. In 1999 he was awarded the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Fund for Client Protection’s “Client Protection” Award for his outstanding service on behalf of the public and the Bar of New Jersey in his role as Chancery Court-appointed Receiver in the case of Montano v. Cohen & Cohen.

Ed is a past president of the C. Willard Heckel Inn of Court and the Rutgers—Newark Law School Alumni Association. He has been a Trustee of the Trial Attorneys of New Jersey for over 30 years. He has been on the faculty of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy for over 25 years and, for the past twenty years, has been one of only two non-government faculty members in the New Jersey Attorney General’s Trial Advocacy Institute. Ed is currently a master of the New York City American Inn of Court and the Lifland (federal practice) American Inn of Court. He has served as a federal arbitrator, and state court certified mediator. He has also been an adjunct professor at Rutgers College.

Ed was a Judicial Law Clerk for The Honorable James A. Coolahan, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey (D.N.J.) from 1975-77. During the two-year clerkship, Judge Coolahan held a temporary assignment to the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Ed has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers In America and New Jersey Super Lawyers, as well as Marquis’ Who’s Who In American Law and Who’s Who in America. He was a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee, Bench, Bar, and Media. He served five years as Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Higher Education Committee.

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Joel has been a partner with the firm for more than 45 years. He served on the firm’s management and compensation committees from 1986 through 2017 and chaired the real estate practice group.

Joel’s practice focuses primarily on real estate and banking matters. His clients include a wide range of real estate investors and developers, numerous banks and other financial institutions, hotel owners and developers, a large fast-food franchise, and many non-real estate businesses with real estate needs. Among the types of matters handled by Joel are the following:

A broad range of commercial, industrial, office, and retail leasing transactions, including a 1,100,000 square foot warehouse lease, a 250,000 square foot office lease, and a lease of an FDA-approved laboratory with the equipment in place.

Purchases and sales of improved and unimproved real property, including transactions with complex approval contingencies and purchase price kickers.

Foreclosures, workouts, and sales with respect to thousands of commercial loans secured by real estate assets, including shopping centers, commercial and residential development projects, commercial office buildings, industrial buildings, mixed used properties, commercial office buildings, industrial buildings, mixed used properties, redevelopment projects, golf courses, tennis facilities, health care facilities, self-storage facilities, restaurants, catering facilities, gas stations, parking garages, and environmentally contaminated properties.

Structuring of corporations, joint ventures, partnerships, and limited liability companies in connection with real estate transactions.

Resolution of real estate disputes, including litigation and alternate dispute resolution.

Joel has been selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America®, Banking and Finance Law, 2006– 2023. Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. He was also named one of the state’s top real estate attorneys by Real Estate New Jersey Magazine. Joel has been awarded Martindale-Hubbell’s AV Preeminent rating, its highest lawyer rating, as an objective indicator of a lawyer’s high ethical standards and legal knowledge.”

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Jeanne Hamburg concentrates her practice in all aspects of copyright and trademark law, both in litigation and in the transactional area.  Resident in the New York City office, she assists clients in a broad range of industries with their IP needs. Jeanne has been recognized in New York Super Lawyers 2009 – 2022; only five percent of New York attorneys are given this honor. Additionally, Jeanne is ranked in the 2019 World Trademark Review 1000 – The World’s Leading Trademark Professionals, which lists the top 1,000 trademark attorneys in 70 jurisdictions globally.

Jeanne litigates copyright, trademark, and cybersquatting cases through trial and, if necessary, appeal. She has acted as national counsel in federal courts across the country to bring and defend infringement claims for clients, both foreign and domestic. Additionally, she has recovered domain names for clients in many Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Proceedings and prosecuted and defended numerous opposition and cancellation proceedings and ex parte appeals in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

In the transactional area, Jeanne is experienced in trademark and copyright licensing, traditional print, and online publishing, software development, website development, content licenses, and electronic subscriptions. She counsels clients on intellectual property aspects of mergers and acquisitions. She is experienced in copyright and trademark clearance, prosecution, and enforcement, and has particular expertise with contentious and transactional issues arising from the Internet.  She is Chair of the firm’s Internet Law Group and is also a member of the Media Law Group, which has been ranked the highest level of recognition, Tier 1, by Media Law International.

Jeanne manages global portfolios, working with international clients to secure and enforce U.S. trademarks and copyrights and working with domestic clients to protect and enforce their marks and copyrights abroad. She handles both domestic and foreign trademark disputes; for the latter, she works with a network of trusted law firms around the world to protect clients’ intellectual property abroad. Additionally, Jeanne is skilled in negotiating and drafting global copyright licenses (including publishing agreements), as well as trademark licenses for both domestic and foreign clients.

Jeanne is a co-author of the firm’s trademark, copyright, and unfair competition law blog, More Than Your Mark^®.

Jeanne is a frequent speaker and writer on intellectual property topics, has been quoted as a thought leader by legal news outlets, and is active in many trade groups in industries whose clients she serves.  Additionally, she is a member of the International Trademark Association (INTA), currently serving on the Leadership Development Committee and the Enforcement Committee, and a member of the Copyright Society of the USA (CSUSA).  She formerly served on the Government Officials Training Committee, was nominated and served as Chair of INTA’s Law Firm Committee, and was selected as a speaker for INTA’s Trademark Basics “Maintaining the Perfect Partnership” seminar held in New York for in-house and outside counsel.

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Victor S. Elgort is Chair of the firm’s Tax Group.  He also serves as the Chair of the firm’s E-Commerce & Information Technology Practice Group.  His practice concentrates on business law and tax planning, including the structuring of partnerships and joint ventures, tax-saving real estate and business exit strategies, executive compensation, and domestic and international estate planning matters.

Victor organized and created the first limited liability company in New Jersey.  He has authored the standard form operating agreements and other documents for limited liability companies published by Julius Blumberg, Inc., including both the forms for use in New Jersey and the generic forms offered nationwide for limited liability companies.

Victor has more than 30 years’ experience in corporate and transactional matters for various professional practices. This includes advising clients about mergers and acquisitions, various business ventures, and creative business arrangements and alliances.

In addition, he is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.  Victor is a frequent lecturer at tax planning courses, including continuing education seminars.  He has authored extensive material published by the National Business Institute, Lorman Education Services, Professional Education Seminars, and other national seminar companies, including “Partnerships, LLCs and LLPs: Organization and Operation,” “Asset Protection Planning in New Jersey,” “Limited Liability Companies in New Jersey,” “Transferring Business Wealth,” “Administration of the Estate in New Jersey,” “Planning Opportunities with Living Trusts in New Jersey,” “New Jersey Probate: Beyond the Basics,” “A Practical Guide to Estate Administration in New Jersey,” and “Family Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies in New Jersey.”

In e-commerce & information technology law, Victor (trained as an engineer) advises our business clients (which include software, biotech, e-commerce, and other companies with proprietary technology) on transactional matters, joint ventures and alliances, intellectual property licenses and transactions, software contracting, financing transactions, and asset, stock, and other acquisitions and mergers.  Victor regularly works with clients on Internet-related information technology, R&D, product development, collaboration, distribution, manufacturing, employment, consulting, and stockholder and investor arrangements.

Victor has been included in The Best Lawyers in America®, Trusts and Estates, 2006–2023. He has been named by his peers as a New Jersey Super Lawyer in the Tax section.

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