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Steven hails originally from New York City, but, along with his wife, (partner, Hilary Unger), their beautiful seven year old daughter, and his “active” one and one-half year old son, Steven is now a Texan; a Houstonian, to be exact.
Steven was graduated from the University of Miami Law School, in Coral Gables, Florida, in 1978, and since that time he has been admitted to practice before the state courts of Texas, New York and New Jersey, and the federal courts in the Southern District of Texas; the Eastern District of Texas; the Southern District of New York; the Eastern District of New York; the Northern District of New York; and the District of New Jersey.
In his 30 years of practice, Steven has represented clients in a wide array of matters, both civil and criminal, state and federal, at the trial and appellate levels. As a public defender in New York City, Steven honed his skills as a trial attorney, tenaciously and successfully defending and fighting for clients accused of all classes and degrees of serious felonies. Since coming to Texas Steven has continued his criminal defense practice, focusing on appeals, but also representing clients at trial.
His experiences as a criminal defense attorney has made Steven aware of how the system tends to strip his clients of their most basic constitutional rights, and after going into private practice he became motivated to do battle with the system in other ways, to sue the government for monetary damages suffered by his clients when they had been falsely arrested, maliciously prosecuted, or subjected to the use of unreasonable and excessive force by the police.
Always motivated by a desire to vindicate the rights of those who had been victimized, Steven expanded his civil rights practice to the field of employment discrimination. However, recognizing that businesses also could be victimized - by baseless and frivolous lawsuits - Steven has made himself available to represent business owners as well as employees.
Inevitably, this motivating spirit prompted Steven to take on the cases of those who had been victimized by the judicial system itself, clients whose rights had not been protected by their own lawyers. In the past ten years Steven has taken on such cases, which most other lawyers wouldn’t touch, that is suing other lawyers for legal malpractice. As one would expect, these are not popular cases in court, where judges and lawyers routinely try to protect other lawyers. However, Steven has been able to successfully litigate these cases, pressing the point that we all are better off, and that the system works as it should, when lawyers are held to the highest standards of practice and are accountable when they do not competently represent their own clients. To be sure, just as Steven learned in his employment law practice, not all clients who have been damaged by their lawyer’s negligence are poor or disenfranchised, but Steven does not “discriminate” against any class of client. He has successfully obtained very significant awards for some very distinguished and well-off individuals, who nonetheless were harmed by their own lawyers and who deserved to be compensated.
Utilizing a sharp intellect, fine writing skills, and a commanding courtroom presence, Steven has been successful in each of these areas of law, and he will be a forceful and effective advocate for you.
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