Practice Areas
Steve Dettelbach serves as firmwide Chair of BakerHostetler’s Litigation Practice Group and also serves on the firm’s Policy Committee. Steve rejoined BakerHostetler in April 2025 after serving as only the second-ever Senate-confirmed Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He is chair of our firm’s 400-plus lawyer firmwide Litigation Group and is a partner in the White Collar, Investigations and Securities Enforcement and Litigation team, which he also led from 2016 to 2022. He served from 2009 to 2016 as the presidentially appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. Mr. Dettelbach has never lost a federal criminal trial.
In his more than three-decade career, Steve has handled many of the nation’s most challenging and important legal, business, regulatory, enforcement and policy matters, both from the private sector and government perspectives. Many of his engagements involve existential stakes for the parties involved.
Professional Memberships
The National Association of Former United States Attorneys (NAFUSA): Board of Directors, Director Class of 2028
Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association
American Bar Association
Legal Aid Society of Greater Cleveland: Board Member
Democratic National Conventions (2008, 2016, 2020)
Norman S. Minor Bar Association
Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court, Washington, D.C.
John Manos Inn of Court, Cleveland, Ohio
National Association of Former United States Attorneys
NAACP: Life Member
Society of Benchers Case Western Reserve University
Bipartisan Federal Judicial Merit Selection Panel for the Southern District of Ohio
The Fifty Club
National Jewish Democratic Council: Chapter Chair