Jackson, Tenn. lawyer Jonathan O. Steen will take office as the Tennessee Bar Association’s 135th president at the group’s annual convention in Gatlinburg, Tenn.

Steen has identified three areas he believes the TBA can positively affect the community and the profession during his term in office. As the father of four young children and the spouse of an educator, Steen hopes to bring new focus to civics education in the elementary and middle school grades, an age group that is often neglected. He also supports the development of medical-legal partnerships in Tennessee as a means of improving the quality of life of its citizens. A third priority will be to expand continuing education and professional development programs throughout the state to assist lawyers in delivering first-rate services to their clients. Steen also will continue the TBA’s efforts to educate the public about the importance of adopting the proposed constitutional amendment number two for selecting appellate court judges. That amendment will be on the November ballot.

A native of Minnesota, Steen received his bachelor’s degree cum laude from St. Olaf College in 1988 and earned his law degree cum laude from the University of Minnesota in 1992. While in law school, he served as a University Senator and as a member of the Minnesota Justice Foundation Local Board. He is admitted to practice in Tennessee, Minnesota, and Wisconsin state courts, the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as federal courts in the Western and Middle Districts of Tennessee, the Eastern and Western Districts of Wisconsin, and in Minnesota.

Steen, a shareholder with Redding, Steen & Staton PC—a firm he cofounded in 2006—serves as trial and appellate counsel for health care, manufacturing, banking, and insurance companies. He also serves as local counsel for national and regional law firms, and in-house counsel. Steen focuses his work in the area of civil litigation, with an emphasis on medical malpractice, professional malpractice, and products and premises liability defense. He also handles commercial and business disputes, and zoning, planning, and land use cases. He has a strong interest in technology, particularly as it relates to electronic discovery issues, and has served as a special master in federal court, overseeing the gathering and production of electronically stored information (ESI) discovery requests.

Steen has been an active member of the TBA, serving as a member of the Board of Governors, the House of Delegates, and the Tennessee Bar Journal Editorial Board. He has held numerous other leadership positions in the TBA, including chairing the Publications and the Legal-Medical Relations Committees. He also worked for many years with the TBA Young Lawyers Division and served as its president from 2002 to 2003. In addition, he was a member of the inaugural 2004 Leadership Law Class and is a fellow of the Tennessee Bar Foundation.

Steen also is active in the American Bar Association (ABA), where he has held a number of roles in the Young Lawyers Division, including assembly delegate and chair and vice chair of various committees. He also is very involved in the ABA’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, where he has served as chair of the Medicine and Law Committee, an editorial board member of The Brief, and an associate editor of the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal. He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

On the local level, Steen has been actively involved with the Jackson-Madison County Bar Association, serving as its president from 1999 to 2000, and is a founding member and past president (2012-2013) of the Howell Edmunds Jackson American Inn of Court.

Steen has served his community in a variety of ways, including work on several local boards and coaching and refereeing youth soccer. He has coached local high school mock trial teams and actively supports civics education. He received a Friend of Education Award from Malesus Elementary School in 2013 for his efforts to educate elementary school students about the meaning and importance of equality for all.

Steen and his wife, Michelle, reside in Jackson. They are the proud parents of four children. Steen is the son of Solveig Paulsrud Steen ’60 and the late Ronald Steen, of Moorhead, Minn.