After 32 years in private practice, Steve brought his litigation experience and skills in-house to Restaurant Brands International where he serves as its first Counsel for Claims and Insurance in their Legal Department located in Miami. 

His immediately prior practice of more than 13 years included a solo practice and a dozen years as a founding partner at the Miami business bankruptcy and reorganization boutique law firm of Aaronson Schantz Beiley P.A..

Steve has been an AV Preeminent® Peer Review and Judicial Rated lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell for more than 20 years and has also been recognized as one of Florida’s Legal Elite® by Florida Trend Magazine since 2006, as a Florida Super Lawyers® for more than 10 years and has earned an Lawyergist rating of 10.0. His former practice was dedicated primarily to the representation of small and mid-size businesses, developers and entrepreneurs in out-of-court workouts, debt restructuring, Ch. 11 and Ch. 7 bankruptcies, and commercial litigation. Other practice areas included the representation of Assignors, Assignees and creditors in state court Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors proceedings throughout Florida; creditors, trustees and targeted preference action defendants in bankruptcy cases in the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida; court-appointed Receivers in state court litigation; and, regional and community banks in the prosecution of commercial and residential foreclosures and in defense of banking related litigation. He previously served as outside general litigation counsel to Florida’s largest bank and other regional financial institutions, national companies and closely held corporations in banking, contract disputes and complex commercial litigation matters. Steve is a member of the Federal Bar and Bankruptcy Bar for the Southern, Middle and Northern Districts of Florida, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.

Steve had been a long-standing member of the Bankruptcy Bar Association for the Southern District of Florida and the Business Law Section of The Florida Bar and is currently serving a Florida Supreme Court appointment as a member of The Florida Bar's Unlicensed Practice of Law Committee 11B for the Eleventh Circuit and as a Florida Bar Fee Arbitrator and Grievance Mediator.  He is a former chair and vice-chair of two Florida Bar Grievance Committees, a former Dade County Bar Association Director and multiple Put Something Back Pro Bono Service Award recipient, a former Guardian Ad Litem, a Leadership Miami graduate, and a past President of the Gator Club® of Miami and member of the University of Florida Law Alumni Council.  Steve’s community service also includes the formation of the not-for-profit Community Foundation of Pinecrest, Inc. of which he has served as Chairman for more than fifteen years and for nearly a decade he served as an officer and director of Switchboard of Miami, Inc.  He attended the University of Florida and Florida State University as an undergraduate receiving a bachelor of science degree with an emphasis on Finance and earned his law degree from the University of Florida College of Law in 1991.

Steve is married to a public school teacher and has 3 adult children.