Draft:Steptoe & Johnson

Steptoe & Johnson PLLC is one of the 200 largest law firms in the U.S. with offices in 18 cites across Colorado, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia. The firm was founded in 1913 in Clarksburg, West Virginia and focuses on business, energy, labor and employment, and litigation. They employ over 400 lawyers and staff across the country. Steptoe & Johnson PLLC is a separate law firm from Steptoe LLP although they originate from one firm that was split into two law firms in 1980.

History
Philip P. Steptoe and Louis A. Johnson established the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson in Clarksburg, West Virginia in 1913. Due to its centralized location and a variety of manufacturing, banking, mineral, and service-related industries, Clarksburg was an ideal base of operations. Steptoe & Johnson became known in the fields of banking, insurance, litigation, mineral, oil and gas, and public utility law.

In 1928, the firm expanded into the state capital of Charleston, WV. Following the end of World War II in the spring and summer of 1945, Louis Johnson was ambitious to create a national law practice and began laying out plans to open an office in Washington, D.C. The firm’s third office opened on November 1, 1945.

The three firm offices in Clarksburg, Charleston, and Washington, D.C. employed 175 attorneys and more than 300 support personnel by the 1970's. In 1980, 35 years after the opening of the Washington, D.C. office, the firm separated into two firms, with the West Virginia partnership called Steptoe & Johnson PLLC, and the Washington, D.C. based firm called Steptoe & Johnson Chartered (now Steptoe LLP).

Each firm continued their own geographic expansion. Steptoe & Johnson PLLC focused and continued growth in West Virginia up until 2007 when it expanded in to Ohio by opening an office in Columbus. In January 2009, Susan S. Brewer was voted as the firm's next CEO of the firm, making her the first female managing member of a corporate West Virginia law firm. Under her leadership the firm expanded in to Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Colorado. In June 2022, the firm opened an office in Oklahoma City, OK, marking its18th office.

One of the unique qualities of the firm is that it employs a "no jerks" rule as noted in it's Core Values, reflecting a different tone compared to other corporate law firms.