Mark Stall – Principal
Mark Stall’s vast experience as outside counsel and in-house counsel allows him to uniquely understand not only what clients want in their legal representation, but also what they need. Mark’s in-depth comprehension of underlying business objectives, a passion for addressing client needs, and a commitment to always acting with integrity have served him well in his over 30 years of practice. Mark and the Stall Legal team believe clients want their in-house attorneys to understand their unique business needs and objectives, all the while actively collaborating with senior management, sales, and field personnel, to take full advantage of business opportunities and address challenges.
Before going in-house, Mark Stall spent over nine years in private practice handling mergers and acquisitions, secured transactions, corporate governance, and commercial transactions with the nationally known firm of Buchanan Ingersoll P.C. in Pittsburgh and later at Graydon in Cincinnati. Mark then spent 14 years rising from Counsel to General Counsel at xpedx/ International Paper Company (a $8B North American distributor of paper, packaging, graphics, facility supplies products and equipment with over 100 warehouses and 120 stores) where he worked side-by-side with management, sales and field personnel. His work included providing user-friendly legal advice to senior management, sales and field personnel; negotiating and drafting hundreds of different types of commercial and technology agreements; handling mergers and acquisitions from the non-disclosure agreement through post-closing adjustments; developing and implementing risk management strategies; providing creditor’s rights advice leading to the recovery of tens of millions of dollars; assisting with employment policies, investigations, processes, and disputes; managing numerous dispute resolution and litigation matters; and negotiating a wide-range of commercial real estate and equipment leases. While serving as General Counsel of xpedx, Mark was recognized with multiple awards for his legal work, leadership, and customer service.
Mark has also served as the General Counsel of Toyota Industries N.A., (a leading manufacturer of material handling equipment and automobile parts), and Cedar Electronics (manufacturer and distributor of the Escort radar detector and Cobra brand of car electronics.) While at Toyota Industries N.A., Mark’s work included collaborating with and providing legal, business and strategic advice to management on commercial, technology, licensing, supply chain and real estate contracts; employment counseling/policies/training; litigation management; and compliance matters. While at Cedar Electronics, Mark’s work included providing management with strategic and legal advice on commercial contracts; technology and intellectual property licensing; trademarks and patents; global compliance; risk management programs; and handling employment law counseling, investigations and training.
Mark is an active member of the Queen City Angels where he regularly participates in the evaluation and mentoring of start-up companies across wide range of industries and business models.
Mark graduated from Miami University (OH) where he earned a Bachelor of Science, with majors in Business Economics and Marketing, and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Cincinnati, College of Law, where Mark was on the editorial staff of the Human Rights Quarterly, University of Pennsylvania Press. Mark is licensed to practice law in Ohio.
Mark is married, lives in Cincinnati, Ohio and has two adult children. In his spare time, Mark enjoys volunteering, collecting wine, exploring estate sales, and entertaining friends and family.
Carter A. Beck – Of Counsel
Carter spent the majority of his 30 plus year legal career in the health care/health insurance sectors. He understands and appreciates the dynamic nature of both small and large, complex, matrixed corporate organizations. He has managed teams of a handful of associates to significant teams of over 70 individuals. Carter has a keen understanding of the interface between how legal departments operate in the abstract and how a legal department needs to operate in the real world of corporate America. Ensuring alignment between corporate management and staff and the supporting legal team is crucial to operational success.
Carter spent the first 10 years of his legal career with McCaslin, Imbus & McCaslin in Cincinnati working on general insurance defense matters, while specializing in complex comprehensive general insurance coverage trial and appellate matters and medical malpractice defense. Subsequently, Carter spent 22 years as in-house counsel for Anthem, Inc. (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield). Upon his retirement from Anthem, Carter served as Senior Vice President and Counsel, and supported a wide variety of areas, including medical management, clinical initiatives, human organ and tissue transplant operations, strategic planning, complex contract development and negotiation, product development, large-scale systems migrations, public policy, government relations, corporate communications, corporate compliance, cost/budget analysis and oversight, and a wide variety of other key programs and initiatives.
Carter graduated from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where he earned a Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Cincinnati, College of Law. Carter is licensed to practice law in Ohio, Kentucky, New Hampshire and Georgia (inactive).
Carter is married and split time between their homes in Manchester, New Hampshire and Tuscany, Italy. In his spare time, Carter enjoys studying and performing classical music, wood working, home renovation, and spending time with friends and family.
Jessica Lynch – Of Counsel
Jessica Lynch is an experienced attorney and problem solver. Over the course of her career she has handled matters—and resolved cases– involving legal aid, family law, civil litigation, corporate work, labor and employment law, class actions, housing, and immigration. From the very start she participated in alternative dispute resolution, especially Arbitration and Mediation. As in-house counsel for a large, global corporation, Jessica learned that resolving cases out of court was the formula for success, for all parties.
Jessica has been a servant-leader throughout her career, handling pro bono custody cases during her first year of practice and continuing to today when she handles pro bono Protection from Abuse matters as well as Landlord-Tenant cases. In this work Jessica has gained a greater perspective of the diversity of problems confronting the community. She has demonstrated leadership in community organizations and Boards across all segments and demographics. Jessica has been honored for maintaining high ethical standards and dedication, is self-disciplined and is a decisive action-taker. Through use of her skills of ethics, collaboration, and empathy, Jessica has proven to be successful in solving difficult problems.
For her formal education, Jessica graduated from Franklin & Marshall College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She earned her law degree from the College of William & Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law in 1992. To further her business acumen, Jessica participated in an MBA Essentials program at the Katz School of Business and received a certificate from Pitt’s Center for Executive Education.
Currently, Jessica is President of the Executive Women’s Council of Greater Pittsburgh. She also is a member of the Boards of Pennsylvania Council of Mediators and Mediation Council of Western Pennsylvania.
Jessica resides in an empty nest in Aspinwall with her husband, Jay.
Judy Pershern – Of Counsel
Judy spent the majority of her 30 plus year legal career in the health care/health insurance sectors. She understands and appreciates the dynamic nature of both small and large, complex, matrixed corporate organizations. She has managed teams of a handful of associates to significant teams of over 30 individuals. Judy has an appreciation and understanding of the interface between how legal departments operate in the abstract and how a legal department needs to operate in the real world of corporate America. Judy strives for alignment between corporate management and the supporting legal team to maximize operational success.
Judy spent 28 years as in-house counsel for Anthem, Inc. (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield). Upon her retirement from Anthem, Judy served as Vice President and Counsel, and supported a wide variety of areas, including individual and group health insurance products and programs, provider, ancillary and vendor contracting, telehealth initiatives, product development and implementation, complex alternate finance arrangements, including self-funded, stop-loss, MEWA and jointly-administered arrangements, claims and customer service operations, internal audit, fraud and abuse programs, large-scale systems migrations, corporate communications, corporate, work process re-engineering and cost reduction, and a wide variety of other key programs and initiatives.
Prior to joining Anthem, Judy spent three years with Ennis, Roberts and Fischer in Cincinnati supporting public boards of education throughout the State of Ohio. Additionally, Judy spent 3 years at Great American Life Insurance Company/Great American Financial Resources, Inc. providing legal support to business areas specializing in fixed and variable annuity products.
Judy graduated from Bowling Green State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science/Bachelor of Arts in Marketing with a specialization in Advertising, and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Cincinnati College of Law. Judy is admitted to practice law in Ohio.
Judy lives in Cincinnati, Ohio and enjoys volunteering and serving on a wide variety of boards and projects, including the University of Cincinnati Foundation, American Heart Association Circle of Red, playing golf and spending time with friends and family.
