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