30 | JUNE 2 • 2022
W
hile on vacation with his family
in Florida, an almost 10-year-
old Jordan Zuppke picked up
his first skateboard. The “skateboarding
lawyer,
” as he’s known today in the skate-
boarding and legal worlds, borrowed a
skateboard from his cousin and practiced
on a little rail in the street.
“I did not want to give back their skate-
board,
” Zuppke, now 33, recalls. “I fell in
love with it instantaneously.
”
Instead, it was almost his 10th birthday
at the time, so he asked his parents for a
skateboard of his own. “I got a little Santa
Cruz [skateboard] that I still have today,
” he
says of that 10th birthday gift. “When I first
stepped on it, I had a very natural ability
with it.
”
Since that moment, Zuppke hasn’t
stopped skateboarding. The criminal
defense attorney and founding partner of
Royal Oak-based Zupac Law initially want-
ed to become a professional skateboarder
and even competed in local skateboarding
competitions, but life eventually led him to
the legal field “by chance,
” he says, where he
found his current professional calling.
Zupac Law opened in 2019, where
Zuppke works alongside his law partner
and founding partner Marina Chupac
(the name is a combination of their last
names). He continues to represent the
skateboarding community, among others,
handling traffic tickets, license resto-
rations, misdemeanors and felonies, in
addition to other legal needs.
A GUIDING FORCE
In Zuppke’s office at 12 Mile and Crooks
are 40-some skateboards on the wall, with
another 100 at home. “It’s truly my first
love,
” he says, explaining
that he likes to restore old
skateboards. “It changed my
life from the moment that I
stepped on a skateboard.
“I never really looked at the
world the same way after,
” he
adds with a laugh.
With skateboarding as what Zuppke calls
his “guiding force,
” he continued to build
his legal career while simultaneously focus-
ing on his involvement in the skateboard-
ing community. He even launched a free
on-the-go legal advice trailer around the
time of opening Zupac Law.
“We bought the trailer from some guy,
and then Marina and I painted it,
” he says.
“Her dad and I put hardwood floor in it. I
bought an electric fireplace and we retrofit-
ted that to the front.
” The goal: for people to
walk into the trailer and feel like they’re in a
real legal office, however mobile.
The trailer made its debut at Dally in the
Alley, a free annual arts and culture event
in Detroit. “I had been doing a free legal
advice booth at Dally in the Alley,
” Zuppke
recalls. “I would invite a bunch of lawyers to
come give legal advice and talk to people.
”
Zuppke and Chupac bought the trailer
with the idea of not only taking it to the
festival, but to other events around town as
well.
BUILDING A COMMUNITY
Zuppke, who hails himself as a creator, has
Jordan
Zuppke
NEXT DOR
A mobile legal advice trailer
and mini-Blockbuster are just
a few of his projects.
Royal Oak’s
Skateboarding
Lawyer
ASHLEY ZLATOPOLSKY CONTRIBUTING WRITER
VOICE OF THE NEW
JEWISH GENERATION
@CAMERAJESUS