John M. Steel concentrates on structuring and negotiating a wide range of financing transactions, acquisitions, and strategic alliances. He has managed hundreds of private equity financings for issuers and investors, including over thirty public offerings, as well as several hundred business combinations and divestitures. Mr. Steel is experienced in a broad variety of commercial transactions including commercial finance, licensing, and distribution arrangements.

The respected English publisher Chambers & Partners cites Mr. Steel in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, calling him "outstanding" and a "standout lawyer" and "a pragmatic corporate attorney with an amazing depth of knowledge," noting that he has "presence and tremendous reputation" and commenting extensively that he "remains one of the region's most prominent business attorneys. Sources hold him in the highest regard, particularly praising his judgment, strategic approach and profound intelligence." Furthermore, Mr. Steel was ranked higher than any other corporate lawyer in Washington State in the 2007, 2008 and 2009 editions.

Mr. Steel has been named in Legal 500 and has been ranked first among Washington's corporate and securities lawyers in several recent peer surveys conducted by Washington Law & Politics, which has named him to the list of the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Washington State. He has been named by Seattle magazine as "the best corporate lawyer in Seattle" and was one of five attorneys profiled in Seattle Business Monthly's 2008 Survey of Seattle's Top Business Lawyers. The PLC Which Lawyer? Yearbook 2009 lists him as a "highly recommended individual"--one of only six named in the state. Mr. Steel has also been recognized by the Investment Forum as the best lawyer in the Northwest Entrepreneurial community, based on a poll of 2,000 entrepreneurs, VCs and service providers. The Best Lawyers in America has named him in every year since 1991. In 2007, Lawdragon named him among the Lawdragon 500 Dealmakers in America.

Mr. Steel is a member of DLA Piper's firmwide Executive and Policy Committees.