Staff & Board

Steve co-founded PILP in 1996 with colleague Mike Rawson to provide impact litigation and advocacy support for California legal services offices after Congress prohibited federally funded services programs from bringing class actions, representing undocumented people and engaging in legislative advocacy.

Steve retired from PILP in December 2014, although he never stopped fighting on behalf of low-income persons. Throughout his career he specialized in major litigation, focusing on public benefits issues, including disability rights, disaster relief, Medi-Cal and Medicaid, general assistance, and skilled nursing care. He also litigated numerous cases involving public housing, freeway relocation, and employment discrimination and has negotiated many community reinvestment agreements with banks, anti-patient dumping agreements with hospitals, and affirmative action agreements with public agencies and corporations. He began his poverty law practice as a Reginald Heber Smith Fellow and served as Litigation Director of the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County, an attorney with the National Housing Law Project, and Senior Lecturer on Poverty Law and Federal Court Practice at King Hall School of Law, University of California at Davis. He was a founder of the California Reinvestment Coalition and the East Bay Community Law Center.