Experience 

Steve Sanders concentrates his practice on appellate litigation and critical motions. He has been the principal or sole author of briefs and petitions to the US Supreme Court, three state supreme courts, five US Courts of Appeals, and various federal district courts.  He has argued in the US Supreme Court, the Illinois Supreme Court, and the 7th and 8th circuits.

Steve's experience includes matters involving federal and appellate jurisdiction and procedure, the Anti-Injunction Act, academic freedom and the First Amendment rights of university faculty, federal civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983, the federal telecommunications act, state constitutional law, leveraged leasing transactions, personal jurisdiction, obstruction of justice, choice of law in class actions, state sovereign immunity, federal common law 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.

Steve joined Mayer Brown after clerking for the Hon. Terence T. Evans on the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.  Before law school, he worked for 15 years in higher education administration at Indiana University as Assistant to the Chancellor and an Assistant Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.  He has written for the Chronicle of Higher Education, the National Law Journal, Findlaw.com and other outlets, and has been recognized with a Leadership Award from Lambda Legal.

Notable Engagements 

• Authored a successful petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in a case presenting novel issues about the scope of immunity for state criminal prosecutors.
• Served as counsel to 23 law and history professors as amici curiae in Varnum v. Brien, in which the Iowa Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the state's statutory prohibition on same-sex marriage violated the Iowa constitution.
• Briefed and argued opposition to a petition for mandamus in the Illinois Supreme Court against a Cook County circuit judge, resulting in an order by the Court vacating leave to file the petition.  
• Represented a county government in a federal appeal, and obtained panel rehearing and reversal of the district court on questions of state sovereign immunity.
• Briefed a federal appeal for a major telecommunications carrier on issues of personal jurisdiction, veil piercing, and federal common law, and obtained reversal of district court judgment dismissing a key defendant.
• Authored brief on behalf of 24 professors of law as amici curiae in the Michigan Supreme Court in a case involving interpretation of a state constitutional amendment.
• Successfully briefed and argued a federal appeal for a major telecommunications provider regarding the resale provisions of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.
• Briefed and argued a federal appeal on Eighth Amendment and negligence claims on behalf of a former prisoner against a county jail, and obtained partial reversal of summary judgment.

Education 

University of Michigan Law School, JD, magna cum laude, 2005; Order of the Coif; Articles Editor, Michigan Law Review; Best Brief and Best Oral Advocate awards, Campbell Moot Court Competition; Bates Scholar (the law school's highest award to a graduating senior) • Indiana University, BA, 1984

Admitted

• US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, 2009
• US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, 2008
• US Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, 2007
• US District Court for the Western District of Michigan, 2007
• US Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, 2006
• Illinois, 2006