Steve Sanders

Steve Sanders □ Professional bio

Steve Sanders is an attorney with the global law firm Mayer Brown LLP, based in Chicago, where he is a member of the Supreme Court and appellate litigation practice group. He also writes and speaks regularly on legal issues pertaining to higher education or to gays and lesbians. He is co-editor of the Sexual Orientation and the Law Blog, part of the Law Professor Blogs Network. In Spring 2010 he will be an adjunct faculty member teaching Sexuality and the Law at the University of Michigan Law School.

Steve has briefed cases and authored petitions to the US Supreme Court; the 2d, 7th, 8th, and 9th Circuit US Courts Of Appeals; the Illinois, Iowa, and Michigan supreme courts; and various federal district courts. He has argued at the Illinois Supreme Court, the 7th and 8th Circuits, and in federal district court. In April 2009, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Pottawattamie County, Iowa v. McGhee, which Steve will argue in fall of 2009.

Steve's experience includes matters involving federal and appellate jurisdiction and procedure, the Anti-Injunction Act, academic freedom and the First Amendment rights of universities and their faculty members, federal civil rights claims under 42 USC Sec. 1983, prosecutorial immunity, the federal telecommunications act, state constitutional law, leveraged leasing transactions, personal jurisdiction, writs of mandamus, obstruction of justice, choice of law in class actions, state sovereign immunity, and accountant liability under the Securities Exchange Act. He has represented clients headquartered in the United States, Italy and the Netherlands, including the American Association of University Professors, AT&T, BNSF Railway Co., KPMG, Philip Morris Capital Corporation and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

A special focus of Steve's practice is the representation of college and university faculty members on matters involving academic freedom, constitutional interpretation, and other issues. He has represented law professors, historians, research scientists, and a major faculty professional group as amici curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court, the 9th Circuit, and two state supreme courts. He authored a widely referenced amicus brief for 23 law and history professors (including a former Iowa solicitor general and a former president of the American Historical Association) in Varnum v. Brien, in which the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously struck down the state's statutory ban on same-sex marriage. He also represented 24 law professors as amici in National Pride at Work v. Granholm, a case in the Michigan Supreme Court on whether public-employer domestic partner benefit programs violate the state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage. And he is co-counsel (with Dean Rodney Smolla) for an amicus brief to the Supreme Court on First Amendment issues pertaining to pharmaceutical data in IMS Health, Inc. v. Ayotte.

A frequent commentator on legal issues regarding sexual orientation or higher education, Steve has written for the Chronicle of Higher Education, Findlaw.com, the National Law Journal, New Republic Online, Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, American Prospect Online, the American Constitution Society Blog, Scripps Howard News Service, Independent Gay Forum, and other publications, and has presented commentaries on the public radio program "Marketplace." He has been interviewed by U.S. News and World Report, Inside Higher Education.com, the Washington Blade, and many other media.

Steve received his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and received the Bates Memorial Scholarship, the law school's highest award to graduating seniors. While at Michigan, Steve was an articles editor for the Michigan Law Review; won prizes for Best Brief and Best Oral Advocate in Michigan's Henry M. Campbell Moot Court Competition; was a semi-finalist in the National Sexual Orientation Law Moot Court Competition, and, as law clerk to the university general counsel, worked on the landmark affirmative action case Grutter v. Bollinger. After law school, he clerked for the Hon. Terence T. Evans on the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

Steve has served as a judge for the Constance Baker Motley National Moot Court Competition in Constitutional Law, and for the National Sexual Orientation Law Moot Court Competition at UCLA Law School, and has spoken on legal and political issues on sexuality or equal marriage rights at the law schools of Yale, Columbia, Duke, Michigan, NYU, Georgetown, Indiana, Michigan State, Northwestern, John Marshall, the University of Oregon, and Valparaiso University. He is also a supervising attorney for Indiana University law school's appellate litigation clinic. A member of the American Bar Association's appellate practice committee, he serves as co-chair of the pro bono practice subcommittee and a member of the board of editors for the ABA Appellate Practice Journal. He has presented scholarly papers at the American Political Science Association, the American Educational Research Association, and the Popular Culture Association, and currently serves on the executive committee of the Sexuality and Politics section of the American Political Science Association.

Before law school, Steve worked in higher education administration, serving as Assistant to the Chancellor and Assistant Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, where he was also active as a teacher, television producer, and radio interviewer and commentator. He chaired the committee that guided domestic partner benefits to unanimous approval by the IU Board of Trustees, developed and taught the Department of Political Science's first course on Gay and Lesbian Politics, and served as advisor to Pi Kappa Phi fraternity and administrative representative to Union Board, the student programming organization. The IU Student Association recognized him with its Jimmy L. Ross Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Life. For public radio station WFIU, he hosted hour-long interviews with university presidents, faculty members, and personalities including former US surgeon general Jocelyn Elders.

Steve has served as Indiana state coordinator for the Human Rights Campaign, a board member of the ACLU of Indiana, chairperson of the City of Bloomington Human Rights Commission, and a member of the Platform Committee for the 2000 Democratic National Convention. More recently he was a member of the Obama campaign's national LGBT steering and policy committee and is active with the American Constitution Society and Friends of Sen. Dick Durbin. He has been recognized with various honors for contributions to legal and political equality, journalism, and college student development, including a Leadership Award from Lambda Legal, the nation's oldest and largest LGBT legal organization.

Steve received his BA from IU in journalism and political science, and did graduate work in political science and higher education administration. As a reporting intern or stringer for the Chicago Tribune, he covered such stories as a tornado that wiped out the town of Barneveld, Wisconsin; a disputed Indiana congressional election ultimately decided by four votes; and the return of hostages from TWA Flight 847. As a graduate student, he was a fellow of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, and was one of three students chosen to interview President Ronald Reagan in the White House. In 2007 he was elected to the executive council of the IU Alumni Association. He also serves on the boards of IU's Arts & Sciences, Journalism, and LGBT alumni associations.

He can be reached by email at stevesan (at) umich.edu.

Updated 4/24/09