Steve is a leading legal ethics lawyer advising lawyers, law firms and corporate legal departments throughout Connecticut in grievance defense matters. He advises local and national law firms on malpractice prevention and risk management, and counsels clients on sensitive ethics, professional responsibility, and business matters.
Steve regularly defends lawyers facing sanctions from formal Grievance Complaints filed with Connecticut’s Statewide Grievance Committee. In addition, Steve provides guidance to lawyers and law firms in their partnership agreements, management of partner departures, lateral hires, dissolutions, licensing, and ethics compliance.
Steve is an experienced neutral arbitrator trained by the American Arbitration Association and is regularly selected to decide complex commercial and construction disputes. He is a member of the American Arbitration Association’s panels for Large & Complex Commercial, and Construction Cases. Steve is also a neutral mediator trained (40 hours) at Quinnipiac University Law School Center for Dispute Resolution. Since 1996, Steve has served by appointment as a Special Master mediating civil cases each month in the State Superior Court in Stamford.
As part of his dedication to his clients, Steve offers value-added services including presenting in-house educational seminars and conducting on-site training to clients designed to proactively minimize ethics issues and address them when they arise. Clients often rely on Steve’s efforts in mitigating future problems as a reason why they come to him when inevitable ethics questions and professional responsibility issues arise.
Steve has a long history of leadership in the state and local bar, including his election as a Board Member (1993-2003) and as President (2003-2004) of the Fairfield County Bar Association. Steve is active in the Connecticut Bar Association as an elected member of its Board of Governors, and as a member of the Professional Ethics Committee, and Profession Discipline Committee. Steve was a member of the CBA Task Force on the Unauthorized Practice of Law.
Steve is a frequent speaker for the Fairfield County Bar Association, the Bridgeport Bar Association, the Connecticut Trial Lawyers Association and the Connecticut Bar Association on the topics of legal ethics, grievance defense, lawyer discipline and law firm risk management.
Since his admission, Steve has maintained an active trial practice representing clients in commercial & construction disputes in State and Federal Courts, and in arbitration, mediation, and administrative hearings before Boards, Committees, and Commissions throughout Connecticut.
In 2012, Steve was appointed to a four-year term on the Connecticut Judicial Compensation Commission which evaluates the adequacy and determines the sufficiency of compensation paid to State Court judges. He served on the Connecticut Judicial Selection Commission which investigates and recommends lawyers for appointment as judges and evaluates incumbent judges for elevation (to the Appellate Court and the Supreme Court) and for reappointment; Steve was Vice-chair when his term on the Commission ended in 2016.
Fairfield County Bar Association, President, 2003–2004
Fairfield County Bar Association, Director, 1993–2005
Fellow of Connecticut Bar Foundation, 2010–Present
Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, 2006–Present
Connecticut Bar Association, Board of Governors, 2010–Present
Connecticut Bar Association, House of Delegates, 2009–Present
Connecticut Bar Association, Standing Committee on Professional Ethics, 1996–Present
Best Lawyers® – Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law, 2021-2026, Mediation, 2024-2026
Connecticut Super Lawyers® – Professional Liability Defense, 2011-2025
250+ Top Lawyers in Fairfield County, 2023, Moffly Media
AV Preeminent, Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell®