Clark Hill's Real Estate Team Adds Ex-Windels Marx Atty

Karl Frederic

A former longtime Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf LLP partner told Outlaw360 that he joined the real estate team at international law firm Clark Hill PLC in New Jersey and New York “to provide a more robust representation” for his clients. 

Karl Frederic has made the move over as a member, Clark Hill announced Wednesday. Frederic said Thursday he is based out of the firm’s Princeton, New Jersey, and New York offices, and brings decades of experience guiding pharmaceutical companies and developers, including guiding a redevelopment project that established a medical school in New Jersey. 

Frederic said he was drawn to the firm’s wider geographic reach. Here, he shares some of his favorite musicians and discusses how his passion for public radio and jazz has pushed him since 2017 to serve as a board of trustees member for Newark Public Radio, which operates WBGO 88.3 FM and wbgo.org. 

Frederic served as lead counsel on the project to redevelop the former Hoffman LaRoche campus into the private Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine in Nutley, New Jersey, according to Clark Hill. The medical school – which has been independent since 2020 after being previously affiliated with Seton Hall University – opened in 2015 and its first doctors graduated in 2021, according to the school’s website.

Frederic said that he was drawn to Clark Hill’s larger platform, which will be beneficial for his clients, including publicly traded companies in the consumer packaged goods and pharmaceutical space as well as emerging biotech companies. 

“I have had the good fortune over my 30-plus-year career of working across multiple asset classes ranging from NFL stadium to major retail projects to pharmaceutical and manufacturing plants down to small parcel acquisitions,” Frederic said. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with public private partnerships on urban redevelopment projects throughout New Jersey.”

He has served as lead counsel for the redevelopment of Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, and he represented a global pharmaceutical company in the sale of a production facility in Suffern, New York, the firm said. 

He also negotiated construction contracts for a renovation project at the 145-year-old Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, the firm said. 

In addition to helping clients redevelop pharmaceutical research and development campuses into multiuser projects, Frederic handles real estate and commercial transactional matters, such as project development, acquisitions, dispositions and leasing, for clients in fields such as healthcare, pharmaceutical, biotech and cannabis, the firm said. 

Frederic has guided clients in private practice, including over nearly 22 years at Windels Marx, according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Among his private practice experience, he was counsel at Drinker Biddle LLP, which is now known as Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, and an associate at Pepper Hamilton LLP – which is set to become Troutman Pepper Locke on Jan. 1 after Troutman Pepper and Locke Lord announced their combination recently. Frederic received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and his law degree from the University of Miami School of Law. 

Frederic previously served as chairman of the board for Newark Public Radio and stepped down to help the public radio station relocate to a new performance and production facility in Newark, the firm said. 

“Given the dramatic changes in the public and local media landscape, I think that the need for strong leadership and creative thinking has become even more urgent in this space, and I am proud to lend my skills to that effort,” he said. 

Frederic said he believes supporting the public radio station will help prevent something he doesn’t want – for the largest city in New Jersey to become a local media desert.

He said the radio station was "exceptionally important" during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"What distinguishes radio from the more popular streaming services is that there’s a human voice and there’s the comfort of knowing that a human person is there curating the media and engaging in the discovering of new music and the sharing of that music, which is fundamentally what we do at music radio,” Frederic said. 

Frederic said among his favorite musicians is Christian McBride, a “kind of a modern titan as a musician, performer and educator.” 

“Terence Blanchard is up there, too,” he said. “Of course, there are Robert Glasper and Kamasi Washington. Pat Metheny is an old favorite – I catch him on every tour. Some favorite vocalists are Samara Joy and Leslie Harrison.”

On Wednesday, Frederic will be at the groundbreaking for the mixed-use facility where the radio station will relocate. As head of the building and facilities committee, he is working on the design, development and fundraising for the radio station’s relocation. 

“You bring the somewhat abstract skill set in the legal field to the real world and that's where you make your impact,” Frederic said. 

—Editing by Orlando Lorenzo and Alyssa Miller.