Steve Coopersmith

Steve Coopersmith is the founder and Managing Partner of The Coopersmith Law Firm, LLP in San Diego, California.  The Firm represents clients throughout Southern California in a wide range of business and corporate litigation matters, including those stemming from corporate and partnership dissolutions, securities and financial fraud violations, bet-the-company litigation, executive-level business employment disputes, and fine art law disputes.  Mr. Coopersmith also handles select planning and public development disputes.After receiving a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Coopersmith earned his Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. During law school, he served as a note editor for the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly and was a judicial extern for the presiding justice of the 1st District Court of Appeal. After graduation from law school, Mr. Coopersmith served as a U.S. Army JAG Officer, providing legal advice to officers and trying felony criminal cases at courts-martial.  Before starting his own firm over 15 years ago, Mr. Coopersmith gained valuable experience in business litigation with several well-known San Diego law firms.Mr. Coopersmith is licensed to practice law in California and before the U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Central, Eastern and Northern Districts of California. He is also licensed to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and the Supreme Court of the United States.In recognition of his professional skills and ethical standards, Martindale-Hubbell has awarded Mr. Coopersmith its AV-Preeminent rating, and his firm is listed in the Bar Register of Pre-Eminent Lawyers for all years since 2014. He was named as a Top Attorney in 2012, 2013 and 2014 by The Daily Transcript, prior to that award's cessation, and on the list of the Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation as of 2025.  He is also listed as one of America's Top 100 Bet-the-Company Litigators.  He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.Mr. Coopersmith was selected as one of 50 Top Influential Business Leaders in San Diego by The Daily Transcript for multiple years, one of the San Diego Business Journal's Top 50 Veteran Business Leaders in San Diego, and one of the Top 100 Leaders in Law in San Diego for multiple years.  For each year since 2022, he was listed on the SD500, the San Diego Business Journal's list of the most influential people in San Diego.In his spare time, Mr. Coopersmith enjoys playing jazz and blues piano, and he is an avid year-round, long distance ocean swimmer.  He is an active member of the San Diego community, has served on the Board of Trustees of the San Diego Museum of Art, and is a member of San Diego Rotary, Club 33.