Steve Hart focuses his practice on employment law and general commercial litigation. His extensive experience includes both jury and non-jury trials in numerous federal and state courts. He has also litigated matters in private arbitration and before such administrative agencies as the federal EEOC, the New York State Division of Human Rights, the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities and the Illinois Human Rights Commission.
Steve received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University in 1965. After service in the Navy, he received his law degree, cum laude, from the University of Michigan in 1972. He is fluent in German and spent 18 months as a fellow (wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) at the Max Planck Institute for Patent, Trademark & Copyright Law in Munich (1972-73).
Steve is a member of Alston & Bird’s pro bono committee and executive committee, and is co-chair of the pro bono committee in the New York office. He has been personally involved in a variety of pro bono matters over the years, including several matters under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, as well as contested child custody and visitation matters in New York Family Court.
- Counsel to the North Carolina-based seller of a medical products business in a dispute with the Texas-based buyer, which proceeded to arbitration in Chicago and resulted in an award of $2.5 million, a complete victory for the client.
- Counsel to the German legatee under the will of a New York decedent in a dispute with the residuary legatees over the interpretation of the tax exoneration clause of the will. The issue was whether the clause encompassed the German Erbschaftsteuer, a tax imposed on an heir’s bequest. The Surrogate’s Court and the Appellate Division, the intermediate appellate court in New York, both decided the issue against the German legatee. On appeal to the New Court of Appeals, Mr. Hart obtained a reversal of the lower courts’ rulings and a complete victory for the client.