Steptoe & Johnson LLP celebrated the 25th anniversary of its Phoenix office with a gala at the Orpheum Theater in Phoenix. Clients and local dignitaries joined Steptoe lawyers from the Phoenix office and the firm’s other offices to celebrate the occasion.
Steptoe’s Phoenix office opened on January 1, 1987, and was the first regional office for the Washington, D.C.-headquartered firm, which today has nine offices, including three outside the United States. The firm was initially drawn to the nation’s Southwest to handle federal government contracts work for the Arizona-based semiconductor division of a large national technology company. While working on the lengthy project, Steptoe became familiar with the Phoenix business community and recognized the opportunities the Valley of the Sun presented.
Steptoe chair Roger E. Warin commented: “The opening of the Phoenix office was the beginning of an evolution for Steptoe, as it marked the first time we were operating in a city outside Washington. The office remains an integral part of the firm, with established practices that serve local, national and global clients and lawyers who work seamlessly with their counterparts in our other offices.”
Steptoe’s Phoenix office handles a broad array of matters, from labor issues for international retail conglomerates to libel issues for national newspapers and broadcasters. Other noted practices include insurance coverage and bad faith defense, commercial litigation, corporate and real estate transactions, and state, local and federal taxation.
“For the past 25 years, we have enjoyed the support of the Phoenix business and legal communities, and we look forward to expanding and strengthening those relationships over the next quarter century,” said David Bodney, managing partner of the firm’s Phoenix office, whose media practice is profiled on the cover of the 2012 edition of Southwest Super Lawyers, and who received the 2011 APS Peacemaker Award from Valle de Sol.
Steptoe’s Phoenix office also is home to former U.S. Representative John Shadegg, who represented northern Phoenix in Congress for eight terms before retiring from office in 2010 and joining the firm as a partner in March 2011, and Ambassador P. Robert Fannin, a senior counsel in the firm who was appointed by President Bush in 2007 to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic. Former FERC Commissioner Marc Spitzer, who previously served in the Arizona State Senate and as chairman of the Arizona Corporation Commission, works from Washington, D.C. and Phoenix and represents energy clients in Phoenix and throughout the Southwest.
