Steven Kaufmann has more than 25 years of experience guiding his clients through their most difficult high-stakes litigation. He has extensive commercial litigation and trial experience, handling disputes in a range of industries including financial services, telecommunications, energy, real estate, logistics and pharmaceuticals. He also has a strong background in class action defense in the financial services, securities and antitrust areas.
Mr. Kaufmann is the former chair of Morrison & Foerster's Litigation Department. He is also a former managing partner and head of litigation in its Denver office, and a former chair of the firm's Consumer Litigation and Class Action Practice Group.
In 2010, Mr. Kaufmann was appointed by President Obama to serve as the chief of staff at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), an independent U.S. government development agency created to reduce poverty through long-term investments in impoverished countries. MCC has an annual operating budget of $1 billion and makes significant investments in African, Asian and Latin American nations designed to eliminate obstacles to economic growth, including transportation and energy solutions. Mr. Kaufmann worked with MCC from 2010 to 2014, and rejoined Morrison & Foerster in February 2014.
In addition to his work in U.S. commercial litigation, class actions and regulatory disputes, Mr. Kaufmann's practice also focuses on representing investors as the navigate through the legal and regulatory issues associated with doing business in emerging and frontier markets.
Mr. Kaufmann was named Colorado's Top Lawyer in the area of management and litigation by Law Week Colorado, and Best Lawyers in America listed him as a leader in the fields of antitrust and commercial litigation.
Mr. Kaufmann received his B.A. degree, summa cum laude, from Wesleyan University in 1980 and received his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan in 1984, where he was a member of the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform. He also is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Before law school, Mr. Kaufmann worked for the Washington, D.C. consulting firm of ICF, Inc., where he undertook economic analysis of energy markets and related environmental issues. Upon graduation, Mr. Kaufmann served as a law clerk to United States District Court Judge John L. Kane, Jr.
