Steve is a big picture thinker. In addition to being an excellent lawyer, he has the business savvy, common sense and wisdom that comes from 40 years of working with closely held companies.
Overview
Steve takes the time to learn about and understand their business. He works primarily with privately owned and family-owned companies. His clients are involved in manufacturing, distribution, architectural services, retail, nonprofit, financial services and hospitality businesses. He knows their issues and concerns and how to address them. He assists with their legal needs, but also serves as a business counselor, confidant and resource.
Steve provides advice and strategic vision for both growth and mature companies, and guides clients in their development with planning, strategy and implementation. He is a trusted adviser to a wide-range of business enterprises in their day-to-day legal matters, as well as handling business sales and acquisitions, business formation, financing of businesses, and business succession.
Experience
Steve played an instrumental role in developing the firm’s client-centric fee models, by creating the firm’s First Counsel® and Core Counsel® programs, which offer flat-fee arrangements for entrepreneurs as they form their new business or for owners of mature businesses that need access to a full array of legal services.
Having grown up in a family that owned a small business, Steve aids clients with planning, strategy and implementation of development plans. He understands how a legal matter fits into the overall business strategy of the client and anticipates potential difficulties in providing creative solutions to his clients’ legal needs.
Recognitions
Recognitions
Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® list, 2025
Recipient of the Sidney Barrows Lifetime Achievement Award from the Twin Cities Cardozo Society
Rated "AV Preeminent" by Martindale-Hubbell
Professional & Civic Activities
Professional & Civic Activities
University of Minnesota Law School Business Law Clinic, Volunteer
Minnesota State Bar Association, North Star Lawyer
St. Paul Jewish Community Center, $16 million capital campaign fundraiser
Association of Corporate Growth (ACG) Minnesota
American Bar Association, Corporation, Banking and Business Law Section
Minnesota State Bar Association, Business Law Section
- Business and Professional Corporations Committee, Former Vice Chair
Minnesota State Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board, Former Board Member
Hennepin County Bar Association
Jewish Community Centers Association of North America, Board of Directors
Jewish Community Center of the Greater St. Paul Area, Former President, Board of Directors and Executive Committee
The Saint Paul Foundation, Management Improvement Fund Advisory Committee
Steinfeldt Family Foundation, Board of Directors
Friends of Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, Honorary Co-Chair of 2018 Sunset Affair
Ronald McDonald House of the Twin Cities, Former Board Member and President
Ronald McDonald House Children’s Charities of the Upper Midwest, Co-Founder
Practices & Industries
Admissions
- Minnesota
- U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota
- U.S. Tax Court
Education
University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., magna cum laude
- Order of the Coif
- Minnesota Law Review
Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, B.S., Business and Accounting, with distinction