Steve Shaw is a senior attorney at Spark Justice Law LLC. Prior to joining the firm in 2021, Steve spent nearly four years as an associate at Goodwin Procter, LLP in Washington, DC. His practice focused on complex civil litigation and appellate litigation. While there, he developed a substantial pro bono practice. In particular, Steve played a major role in two class action suits challenging USCIS policies on constitutional and administrative law grounds, securing a preliminary injunction and surviving multiple dispositive motions. Steve’s pro bono work has also focused on protecting the rights of prisoners and other disadvantaged individuals, including multiple deliberate indifference prison cases and one housing discrimination case on behalf of a transgender evictee.
Professional Background
Steve has experience driving cases through the entire process of litigation, both on behalf of individual plaintiffs and in class action suits intended to make a policy impact. His work on behalf of individual plaintiffs has focused on the fields of complex business litigation, employment discrimination, constitutional rights, sex abuse (including Title IX), disability discrimination, and police excessive force. Steve has also worked extensively in the appellate context, authoring several amicus curiae briefs and drafting or contributing substantially to numerous appellate briefs. Steve has previously argued and won remand in an appeal in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals relating to a prisoner’s First Amendment and Equal Protection right to wear a religiously mandated beard without residing in solitary confinement, and he has appeared on several briefs filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.
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From 2015 through 2017, Steve served as a law clerk for then Chief Judge Ruben Castillo of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Steve graduated from Harvard Law School in 2015, where he served as Supervising Chair of the Harvard Law Review. As a law student, he interned with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division in the Special Litigation Section, where he helped develop impact litigation cases involving police practices and disability discrimination.
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Steve graduated summa cum laude with a degree in philosophy from Fordham University in 2009 and earned a master's degree in philosophy from Fordham University in 2010.
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Steve served as the primary drafter of the firm's appellate briefing in a case that went to trial against the City and County of Denver in 2022, resulting in a nearly $600,000 verdict. His appellate briefing successfully defended the verdict against Denver's attempt to obtain a new trial.
Publications
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129 Harv. L. Rev. 1090 (2016) (arguing that 28 U.S.C. § 2255’s statute of limitations on federal habeas corpus petitions violates the Suspension Clause)
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128 Harv. L. Rev. 261 (2014) (discussing Kaley v. United States, 134 S. Ct. 1090)
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127 Harv. L. Rev. 1059 (2014) (arguing that cell phone searches should not be permitted under the search-incident-to-arrest warrant exception)
Bar Admission
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Colorado
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New York
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U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
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U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
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Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals
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Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
Education
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Harvard Law School, JD 2015
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Fordham University, MA 2010
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Fordham University, BA 2009 – summa cum laude, in cursu honorum