Biography
Myron T. Steele is of counsel in the firm's Corporate Litigation Group. He is the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware.
Previously, he served as a Judge of the Superior Court and a Vice Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery after eighteen years in private litigation practice. He has presided over major corporate litigation and LLC and limited partner governance disputes, and writes frequently on issues of corporate document interpretation and corporate governance.
Chief Justice Steele has published over 400 opinions resolving disputes among members of limited liability companies, and limited partnerships, and between shareholders and management of both publicly traded and close corporations. He speaks and writes frequently on issues of corporate document interpretation and corporate governance. His thesis for the LL.M. degree, Judicial Scrutiny of Fiduciary Duties in Delaware Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies, focused on the application of common law fiduciary duties within the contractual framework of alternative business organizations. It was published in the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law (32 Del. J. Corp. L. 1 (2007)). The November 2005 issue of The Business Lawyer included an article he co-authored with Sean J. Griffith entitled On Corporate Law Federalism: Threatening the Thaumatrope (61 Bus. Law. 1 (2005)). He co-authored an article with J.W. Verret entitled Delaware’s Guidance: Ensuring Equity for the Modern Witenagemot published in the Fall 2007 issue of the Virginia Law & Business Review (2 Va. L. & Bus. Rev. 188 (2007)). That article formed the basis for a keynote speech to the Business Law Section at the 2007 ABA Annual Meeting.
For the last ten years he served as judicial advisor to the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee of the ABA Business Law Section. He also co-authored an article entitled “Freedom of Contract and Default Contractual Duties in Delaware Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies” (46 Am. Bus. L.J. 221 (Summer 2009)) and an essay entitled “The Moral Underpinning of Delaware’s Modern Corporate Fiduciary Duties” (26 Notre Dame J.L. Ethics & Pub. Pol’y 3 (2012)).
Chief Justice Steele served as Adjunct Professor of Law at University of Pennsylvania Law School from 2009–2013; University of Virginia Law School 2010–2017; and Pepperdine University Law School 2010–2014.
Practice Areas
Professional Activities & Recognition
Honors & Recognitions
Ranked as one of the 100 most influential people in corporate governance in the United States by The Directorship Magazine
Ranked as second in its list of “the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics for 2007” by Ethisphere Magazine
Lawdragon Magazine has consistently placed him among its annual Lawdragon 500 “Leading Lawyers in America” and “Top Judges in America” and named him to The Lawdragon Legends in 2015
Awarded the 2012 Judicial Achievement Award by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform in Washington, DC
Inducted into The Citadel Business School's 2015 Hall of Fame: Leaders of Principle
Recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® for Corporate Governance Law, Corporate Law, and Litigation - Mergers and Acquisitions, 2019 - present
Named Best Lawyers® "Lawyer of the Year" in Wilmington, DE for Corporate Governance Law, 2024
Professional
Past President of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and Chair of the National Center for State Courts (NCSC) Board of Directors for 2012-2013
Co-Chair on the ABA Joint Task Force on M&A Litigation
Vice President, Treasurer, member of Board of Trustees and founding Fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel
Education
University of Virginia School of Law, J.D., 1970; LL.M, 2005
University of Virginia, B.A., Foreign Affairs
Bar & Court Admissions
Bar Admissions
- Delaware
- Virginia
- United States District Court for the District of Delaware
- United States Supreme Court