Overview
If you ask Steve, working with a wide variety of clients is one of the best parts of his job. He enjoys plant tours with manufacturers. He appreciates the personal side of a family-owned business. He learns from his international clients, discovering the laws, customs and negotiating styles of different countries. He likes helping directors and C-level officers navigate their careers and overcome business challenges. He has a lot in common with the professional service providers he represents, and he has a kinship when working with in-house counsel, because Steve spent seven years as in-house general counsel for a large international container manufacturer.
In more than 30 years of practice, Steve has established himself as a trusted advisor for businesses and individuals. He handles complex mergers and acquisitions, financing and capital-raising transactions, private placements, reorganizations and outsourcing transactions, ownership agreements and strategic alliances, and long-term wind and solar leases and easements. Steve assists clients with corporate governance and securities law compliance, secured lending transactions, international business and cross-border transactions, intellectual property licensing and acquisition, private equity and venture capital transactions, and litigation and risk management. He also drafts, negotiates and manages a wide variety of commercial and other forms of contracts and agreements.
Steve’s clients work in a variety of industries, including fabrication, manufacturing and printing, freight and logistics, containers and packaging, metal services, factory automation, tool and die, bearings and bearing assemblies, web retailing, financial services, consulting, investment banking, market data analytics and real estate. He provides value to his clients with the right mix of practical business acumen and technical legal skills.
Experience
Membership & Involvement
Member: American Bar Association, Business Law Section, Mergers and Acquisitions and Private Equity Subcommittees
Resources & Insights
Alerts
Speaking Engagements
Education on Demand
Preparing to sell your business can be an overwhelming endeavor. A checklist of considerations for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions can ease the burden.
Firm News
- Thinking About Selling Your Business? What You Need to be Doing NowThinking About Selling Your Business? What You Need to be Doing Now
View our on demand webcast where Steve Sims presents on how to prepare for the sale of your business. This presentation focuses on the sale of a solvent, privately-owned business.
- Federal Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements Coming Soon for Many Corporations and LLCsFederal Beneficial Ownership Reporting Requirements Coming Soon for Many Corporations and LLCs
The U.S. Congress slipped the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) into the National Defense Authorization Act enacted on January 1, 2021, after an override of former President Trump’s veto. The CTA will increase the regulatory burden on the vast majority of new and existing corporations and limited liability companies (LLCs) and may change how new businesses are organized.
Services
- Commercial Contracts
- Commercial Lending
- Corporate & Securities
- Corporate Governance
- Joint Ventures & Strategic Alliance Agreements
- Manufacturing & Food Processing
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Money Management/Investment Adviser
- Outside General Counsel
- Securities & Capital Markets
- Securities Enforcement
- Shareholder Activism
- Venture Capital & Private Equity
Education
Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, J.D., 1989
Eastern Illinois University, B.A., 1986
Admissions
- Illinois