Steven Forbes Pflaum

Steven F. Pflaum is a partner in Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP and chair of the firm's Pro Bono Committee.  His practice includes a wide variety of complex civil litigation matters, includ­ing commercial, constitutional, media, airport, and land use cases. A substantial portion of his practice involves appeals in state and federal courts across the country. Areas of particular concentration include representing hospitals in property tax exemption and other controver­sies, defending and counseling print, online, and broadcast media entities with respect to defamation and related claims, and representing municipalities in disputes regarding so-called “locally undesirable land uses” such as airports, music amphitheaters, jails, or landfills.

Steve serves as a neutral or as counsel in alternative dispute resolution proceedings conducted by various courts, self-regulatory organizations, and ADR providers. 

Steve serves as an expert witness or as counsel with respect to professional ethics and liability issues.  He is a founding member and current chair of the Illinois Judicial Ethics Committee, a former member and two-term chair of the Illinois Supreme Court Committee on Professional Responsibility, and a faculty member of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission’s Illinois Professional Responsibility Institute.

Steve is President of the Appellate Lawyers Association, an organization of lawyers who practice in the courts of review and of judges who serve on those courts. Steve is also a member of the Chicago Bar Association, for which he served as General Counsel from 1996 to 2009 and sat on the Board of Managers from 1993 to 1995. Steve is also a member of the Illinois Association of Healthcare Attorneys, Chicago Council of Lawyers, American Bar Association and the State Bar of California.