V.M. Wheeler’s legal practice concentrates on corporate law, commercial transactions, contracts and real estate. Over the course of his career, he has gained extensive experience working with the financial services, healthcare, energy and energy services industries in a broad array of transactions providing him with a unique legal and business perspective.

After working as an attorney in private practice in New Orleans following graduation from Tulane Law School, V.M. worked as an investment banker in New York, Dallas and Houston for nearly a decade. In this capacity, he participated in a variety of transactions, including initial public offering of equity securities, private placements of debt, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. He regularly advised Boards of Directors on valuation issues and rendered fairness opinions, and has also served on the Board of Directors of a publicly-traded restaurant company.

Since returning to private practice in New Orleans in 1994, V.M. has advised the largest Louisiana-headquartered mortgage banker on the divestiture of its commercial mortgage banking operations to a prominent Wall Street investment bank. In addition, he has advised the founding shareholders on the sale of a significant sleep disorder diagnostic services provider to a Boston-based healthcare merchant bank. V.M. also has assisted clients with a variety of tax credit financings, including Low Income Housing Tax Credit and New Market Tax Credit transactions, and regularly serves as local counsel for Fannie Mae.

As a licensed title insurance agent, V.M. has issued hundreds of title insurance policies for real estate transactions ranging from residential properties to large commercial projects, and has advised in-state and out-of-state lenders on a variety of title issues. He regularly advises and represents a national title insurance company in connection with title insurance policy claims.

V.M. frequently lectures at local universities on real estate law, investments and corporate financial policy. He is an adjunct faculty member at Loyola University's Joseph A. Butt, College of Business, at Tulane Law School, and at Tulane's A.B. Freeman School of Business.

In previous years, V.M. served on the Governor’s Economic Development Commission, the Governor’s Committee of One Hundred, the Louisiana Agricultural Finance Authority and the Jefferson Parish Hospital Service District Citizens’ Task Force.


Professional Affiliations:

• American Bar Association
• Louisiana State Bar Association
• New Orleans Bar Association

• Christopher Homes, Inc. – Secretary / Treasurer, Board of Directors
• Friends of St. Alphonsus – Board of Directors
• Immaculate Conception Jesuit Church – Finance Council Chairman
• Loyola University New Orleans – College of Business Visiting Committee
• New Orleans Medical Mission Services – Advisory Board