About Steve

Steve Tupper is a commercial, technology, compliance, and aviation lawyer. He spent 10 years in corporate America, went to law school, practiced law for 18 years with a large law firm full of whip-smart colleagues, and came out the other end with a lot of great ideas about how law practice could be even better. The Tupper Law Firm is the embodiment of those ideas.

He holds a B.A. in economics and political science from Albion College, an MBA in Finance from Western Michigan University, and a J.D. from Wayne State University Law School. He also completed a program as a Senior Executive Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

He is admitted to practice in the State of Michigan, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, and the United States Supreme Court.

Steve began in commercial banking in the late 1980s as a credit analyst and later became a workout and special-assets lender handling industrial, agricultural, and real-estate matters in west Michigan and southeast Michigan for Old Kent Bank (now Fifth Third) and First of America Bank (now PNC). In the mid-1990s, he became a contract administrator with EDS (later HP Enterprise) while attending Wayne State University’s law school down the street in the evenings.

He is consistently named to peer-reviewed lists like Best Lawyers in America (19 years running).

He holds privacy and data protection certifications through the International Association of Privacy Professionals, including:

• Certified Information Privacy Professional - US Private Sector (CIPP/US)

• Certified Information Privacy Professional - Europe (CIPP/E)

• Certified Information Privacy Professional - Asia (CIPP/A)

• Certified Information Privacy Professional - Canada (CIPP/C)

• Certified Information Privacy Technologist (CIPT)

• Fellow of Information privacy (FIP)

He is an airline transport pilot with commercial privileges in multi-engine airplanes and in gliders, as well as a certificated flight instructor in both single-engine airplanes and gliders (CFI/CFII). He has logged time in everything from gliders to the mighty F-16D (an orientation flight with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds) to the golden-age DC-3/C-47 airliner/transport in which he is type rated SIC. He holds a FAST formation Lead card from the Red Star Pilots Association and an FAA Recommended Air Boss Letter of Authorization (LoA) (RAB/SV). He is also an airshow pilot who has performed with his four-ship formation team at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh.

Aviation and the law intersect for Steve in his role with Civil Air Patrol (the U.S. Air Force auxiliary, which rolls up under AETC and ultimately 1st Air Force). He is a lieutenant colonel and vice commander of CAP’s Michigan Wing and formerly served CAP’s Great Lakes Region as the legal officer overseeing legal matters for 6,000 airmen in more than 200 units across six US states. He is also a search-and-rescue/disaster-relief pilot and he serves as a check airman examiner (translation: a pilot who makes pilots who make pilots). He is a past distinguished graduate of the CAP National Emergency Services Academy (NESA) Mission Aircrew School (MAS) and regularly returns as cadre to instruct new mission pilots and other aircrew. He also serves on the CAP NHQ OPS staff, advising with respect to aviation matters.

He is a lifelong resident of Michigan and has lived and worked in southeast Michigan for more than 25 years. There are lots of great places and wonderful people in the world, but Steve has a special place in his heart for the grit and resilience of his beloved Detroit. He even originated the Tuskegee Airmen Detroit River Days airshow, an aerial love letter to The D, which happens over the Detroit River abeam downtown Detroit in June every year.

He is the only person known to have been cut off at a Starbucks (NaNoWriMo 2005).

Publications

The Pilot’s Legal Guide, Pilot Workshops 2023.

PLI Treatise: Technology Transactions (Technology Escrow and International Data Transfer Chapters) 2016 with annual updates through 2021.

“Air Shows! Bringing the Thunder to Michigan’s Skies,” Michigan Bar Journal, July 2021 at 32 (with Kevin Walsh of the Yankee Air Museum).

“Interviewing the Privacy/Data Security Candidate: A Guide for the Non-Expert Hiring Manager” March 6, 2017

Bloomberg BNA Privacy and Security Law Report - 2016 Mergers & Acquisitions Outlook Survey - October 24, 2016

“Privacy Shield Update: Companies Are Flocking to New EU-US Data Transfer Agreement” - August 29, 2016

Point B + Beyond “Ten Steps to Minimize Data Privacy and Security Risk and Maximize Compliance” - April 13, 2016

The Cybersecurity Law Report Vol. 2, No. 8 “Strategies Pending EU Safe Harbor 2.0: Companies Consider Consent, Contracts, Binding Corporate Rules” - January 5, 2016

Metropolitan Corporate Counsel “Why forthcoming EU data regulations will affect global auto industry players” - May 2015

Automotive World “FAA Regulations Could Help Drones Take Wing” - May 1, 2015

Metropolitan Corporate Counsel “Privacy and Data Security Moving Up On the List of Issues in M&A Transactions” - January 27, 2015

Inside Counsel, Before Self-Driving Cars: Four Tech Challenges the Auto Industry Faces Today - January 16, 2015

Contributor to Huffington Post Technology
“US Company MacGyvers a New Military Jet” December 23, 2013

Contributor to Let’s Go Flying (www.letsgoflying.com) - Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA)

“Airspeed: The First Two Years Aloft—Essays, Rants, Ruminations and the Big Dream from the First Two Years of the Airspeed Podcast”
December 2006

Publisher of Airspeed, an aviation and aerospace podcast and blog (www.airspeedonline.com)

“Getting the Information Technology Agreement Technology Done in the Age of Killer Patents” (with Gail Bacon of Fry, Inc.) - May 2005

“Electronic Signatures: Know the Risks and Rewards” 2004 - Michigan Bar Journal 36-39

“Click with Caution: Courts Are Upholding Electronic Signatures in Transaction Documents” - Association News 20-21, Michigan Society of Association Executives

Commercial Increment Real Estate
“Making Electronic Signatures Stick” (Co-authored with Donald M. Crawford)
March 2003 - Michigan Bar Journal 24-28
“The E-Commerce Legal Arsenal: Practitioner Agreements and Checklists” (Contributor)
2002 - Section of Science and Technology Law, American Bar Association

Seminars and Speeches

• Civil Air Patrol Glider Operations in the United States, European glider instructor recertification seminar (December 2023).

• What We Learned about Aviation Safety by Putting on an Airshow, Michigan FAA Safety Team (September 2023).

• The Direction of New State Privacy Legislation: the GDPR Extends Its Influence, State Bar of Michigan IT Law Section Conference (September 9, 2021).

• Data Processing Agreements under the GDPR: Best Practice, Various, 2018-2019.

• Using Cyber Insurance to Address Risk in Outsourcing and Service Agreements, Information Systems Security Association, March 21, 2019.

• When the Estate Includes an Aircraft, State Bar of Michigan Estate Planning Institute 2018.

• The GDPR is Coming – Is Your Company Ready?, October 25, 2017

• Privacy and Compliance – State Bar of Michigan – Business Law Institute, October 2017

• Practical Privacy and Data Security for the Automotive Supply Chain, Original Equipment Suppliers Association, Southfield, Michigan, July 11, 2017

• Securing Your Workplace, Financial Executives International Detroit, Career and Professional Development Sessions, Birmingham, MI, March 27, 2017

• Goodbye Safe Harbor, Hello Privacy Shield

• The New Reality of EU-U.S. Cross-Border Data Transfers and Immediate Steps You Can Take to Avoid Non-Compliance, July 27, 2016

• A Practical Approach to Privacy in Contracting, 5th Annual ICLE Information Technology Law Seminar (ICLE), Plymouth, MI

• The Legal Officer’s Seat Kit: Intellectual Property, New Media, and Social Media, National Legal Officer College (sponsored by Civil Air Patrol), Dallas, TX, April 22, 2010

• Aviation Forum at AirVenture Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, August 2009

• The Value (or Lack Thereof) of New Media and Social Media in Legal Marketing, July 2009

• Aviation Forum at AirVenture Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, August 2008

• Best Practices in Technology Outsourcing, September 2007

• The View from the GC’s Desk, Michigan State Journal of International Law Symposium, E-Commerce: Challenges to Privacy, Integrity, and Security in a Borderless World, 2007

• Aviation Forum at AirVenture Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI, July 2007

• Master Class: Resolving Problems between Suppliers and Purchasers, September 2005

• The Seven Best Practices in Purchasing in Michigan, April 2005

• Purchasing Basics A-Z in Michigan, December 2004

• Security and Electronic Transactions portion of HIPAA Compliance: Understanding and Implementing the Privacy, Security, and Portability Regulations, Wayne County Government, Wayne, MI, May 23, 2002

• Emerging Issues in Electronic Transactions, State Bar of Michigan, Real Property Section, Troy, MI, April 18, 2002

• Security and Electronic Transactions portion of HIPAA Compliance: Understanding and Implementing the Privacy, Security, and Portability Regulations, Detroit, MI, February 22, 2002