Stephen P. Leara
Associate Attorney
Areas of Practice:
Biography
Steve Leara was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. Steve attended Brown University, where he lettered in both football and baseball and served as the president of Delta Tau Delta fraternity. He graduated from Brown in 1986 with a Sc.B. degree in electrical engineering and spent the better part of five years working for the General Electric Co., which brought him to Birmingham, Alabama. He received his J.D. degree from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University, graduating magna cum laude in 1994. Steve is licensed to practice in Alabama and Georgia, and specializes in the areas of bankruptcy law, banking & finance, divestitures, business organizations & syndications, mergers & acquisitions, intellectual property, and real estate development. For over 30 years, Steve has represented banks, investment firms, developers, and private & public companies all over the country.
In 2001, the Birmingham Business Journal selected Steve as one of the “Top 40 Under 40” when recognizing outstanding young business leaders. Steve is an associate professor for Mergers and Acquisitions and Bankruptcy at the Cumberland School of Law, serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Retail Specialists, LLC and Retail Strategies, LLC (Birmingham, Alabama). He is a former member of the Board of Directors of SouthPoint Bank (Birmingham, Alabama), the Mountain Brook Sports Corporation (Mtn. Brook, Alabama), and is a former assistant scout master for Boy Scouts of America Troop 320. He currently serves on the boards of the Holy Trinity/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral Foundation (Birmingham, Alabama), the American Hellenic Athletic Foundation (Atlanta, Georgia), the Brown Football Association (Providence, Rhode Island), and several private companies.
Admissions
- Alabama State Bar
Education
- J.D., magna cum laude, Samford University Cumberland School of Law, 2020
- Sc.B. Electrical Engineering, Brown University, 1986