About Stephen
Steve is a member of the firm’s Chambers-ranked commercial litigation team and focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation, including class and collective actions, labor and employment, and healthcare regulatory compliance, including investigations involving the Anti-Kickback Statute and related issues. In 2024, Chambers USA quoted a client who said, “Steve is a very strategic litigator in the most complex strategic questions. He always gives good advice.”
In his litigation practice, Steve has represented clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to local businesses at all stages of investigation, litigation, and appeal, as well as in mediation and arbitration. Steve has represented clients before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the Indiana Court of Appeals, and the Indiana Supreme Court. In his healthcare practice, Steve advises healthcare providers on a wide range of healthcare regulatory and compliance issues, including fraud and abuse and data privacy and security.
Before joining SouthBank Legal, Steve practiced at Am Law 100 firms, first focusing on healthcare regulatory counseling and advocacy in Washington, D.C., and more recently on complex commercial litigation and antitrust with a Midwest-based firm.
Steve has also served as an adjunct professor of law at Notre Dame Law School, teaching courses on deposition skills and on the intersection between Catholic social teaching, religious liberty, and the U.S. legal system.
Experience
In previous matters, Steve has:
- Defended a Fortune 500 RV manufacturer against wage and hour class and collective action claims alleging improper calculation of overtime pay for rate-based manufacturing workers.
- Defended multiple employment discrimination lawsuits under Title VII, the ADA, and the ADEA across industries including hospitals, orthopedics, RV manufacturing, and government contractors.
- Defended a Fortune 500 orthopedics manufacturer against nationwide products liability actions consolidated in multidistrict litigation.
- Represented a multinational electronics manufacturer and its U.S. subsidiary in multidistrict and class action antitrust litigation alleging an international price-fixing cartel.
- Defended a restaurant against a collective action wage and hour lawsuit alleging failure to pay for training time.
- Represented an electronics and automation manufacturer in trade-secret theft claims against a former employee and his new employer.
- Advised a regional health information exchange in regulatory and general business matters.
- Counseled physicians and other healthcare practitioners in employment-related matters.
- Represented regional Catholic Bishops’ Conferences as amici curiae in support of successful petition for en banc review of Seventh Circuit decision limiting religious liberty for churches’ ministerial employment decisions.
- Represented a regional health system against a physician challenging the suspension of hospital privileges.
- Represented a urological therapy services company in an investigation alleging violations of the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute.
- Represented a non-profit advocacy organization for urologists and lithotripsy providers in challenging Medicare payment regulations.
- Represented an association of physician-owned hospitals in regulatory and legislative advocacy.
- Defended a Fortune 25 motor vehicle manufacturer against product liability claims involving truck chassis.
- Defended a Global 2000 medical device manufacturer against a False Claims Act qui tam lawsuit alleging violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute.
- Defended a pharmaceutical company in an investigation by the SEC.
- Advised one of the largest U.S. duck producers on antitrust compliance issues related to the acquisition of a competitor.
- Advised a major Midwest healthcare system on healthcare regulatory compliance issues related to the unwinding of a merger challenged by the FTC.
- Represented a Fortune 100 financial services firm in an appeal challenging the settlement of multidistrict and class action litigation alleging TCPA violations.
- Defended a Fortune 200 pharmaceutical manufacturer against shareholder derivative litigation.
- Defended a national professional sports league in multidistrict litigation over damages allegedly caused by concussions.
- Advised a Fortune 25 financial services firm in connection with underwriting bonds to finance hospital expansions in Baltimore and Philadelphia.
Education
- Notre Dame Law School, J.D., magna cum laude
- Executive Articles Editor, Notre Dame Law Review
- Loyola University Maryland, B.A.
Admissions
- Indiana
- Maryland
- Washington, D.C.
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit