On January 3rd, Duane Morris announced that Sutro would be joining fellow Duane Morris partner “Sharon L. Caffrey in the firmwide leadership of Duane Morris’ largest practice group, comprising more than 40 percent of the firm’s attorneys” as co-chair of their Trial Practice Group.
Sutro graduated from Trinity College-Hartford in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and Religious Studies before coming to Santa Clara University School of Law. During his time at Santa Clara Law, he served as the senior comments editor of the Santa Clara Law Review, was a merit scholar, and participated in Honors Moot Court. “Those three years at Santa Clara taught me to think like a lawyer and laid the foundation for interactions that are now second nature,” Sutro commented. “All of us worked very hard, obviously, but it was the time that we spent after class with faculty and each other discussing ethics, ideas, and values that were so impactful to me personally.” He graduated cum laude in 1994.
Sutro joined Duane Morris in 2003 as a partner of the firm before becoming managing partner of their San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices in 2014. He is renowned as one of The Best Lawyers in America, listed in 2021-2024, for commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense. Northern California’s Super Lawyers also recognized him for his practice in the area of white-collar criminal defense. His representative experience includes government contracts, securities and insider trading, antitrust, corporate governance, intellectual property, food and drug law, environmental law, homeland security and customs enforcement, tax law, and a broad range of white-collar criminal and civil matters.
Outside of his role at Duane Morris, Sutro serves as a member of Santa Clara Law’s Law Advisory Board, supporting and guiding the education of future legal practitioners. “The impression on me from my time at Santa Clara was apparent; at the time of my graduation, my family endowed a professorship in the name of my grandparents for a faculty member who incorporates ethics and social justice into teaching and scholarship. Many of the faculty that taught me are now retired, but I still enjoy visiting the School of Law – I just wish that I had more time to do so on a regular basis. It’s a special place and I know from the graduates that we have hired over the years that they feel the same way.”
Dean Michael Kaufman offered his congratulations, “On behalf of the entire Santa Clara law community, I want to congratulate Stephen on his richly deserved promotion, which is a tribute not only to his extraordinary legal skills, but also to his leadership and dedication to serving others–including his grateful clients and his enormously proud law school alma mater–with conscience, competence, and compassion.”
