Steven L. Baron was born on February 24, 1962, in Ottawa, Ontario. Queen Victoria selected Ottawa in 1857 as the capital of the Province of Canada, and after Confederation in 1867 it became the capital of the Dominion of Canada, a role it still holds.
Baron's undergraduate studies began at Carleton College, a liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, where he studied political science from 1980 to 1982. Founded in 1866 as Northfield College by the Minnesota Conference of Congregational Churches, the institution was renamed Carleton College in 1871 and later became non-sectarian. Its liberal arts tradition emphasized broad study across the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences rather than training for a single career path.
He then attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he received a Bachelor of Arts with distinction in 1984. Established in 1848 when Wisconsin became a state, the university grew into the flagship campus of the state's public university system, with a broad range of academic programs.
From 1985 to 1988 he studied at the University of Minnesota Law School, where he earned a Juris Doctor in 1988. While enrolled he served as a staff member and later an editor of the Minnesota Law Review from 1986 to 1988. The university, chartered in 1851 and based in Minneapolis, is a public research university, and its student-edited law journal gave law students editorial training alongside their coursework.
Baron's legal career began with a judicial clerkship. He served as a judicial law clerk for the Minnesota District Court from 1988 to 1989, after his admission to the Minnesota bar in 1988; his Minnesota license is now inactive. The District Court is the general trial court within Minnesota's state court system, where judges hear a wide range of civil and criminal matters.
He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1989 and later practiced in Chicago. He became a partner at Mandell Menkes LLC, a Chicago firm handling both litigation and transactional matters, where he practiced intellectual property law. In May 2008 he moderated an Illinois State Bar Association seminar on intellectual property, speaking on privacy and publicity law.
He subsequently became a partner at Baron Harris Healey, a Chicago firm whose practice includes media, entertainment, and intellectual property disputes. Baron has counseled publishers, authors, podcasters, advertising agencies, recording companies, and other businesses on intellectual property matters and complex commercial disputes. He also received the Distinguished Service Award of the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation.
The American Bar Association, founded in 1878, is the national voluntary association of American lawyers and a major forum for the legal profession. The Illinois State Bar Association, established in 1877, serves as the statewide bar association for Illinois lawyers and organizes seminars and practice-section activities. Baron has been active in both organizations, and in 2023 and 2024 he chaired the ISBA's Intellectual Property Section.
He also belongs to the Copyright Society of the USA, founded in 1953 to advance the study of copyright law, and to the Authors Guild, an association of American writers founded in 1912 that works to protect authors' rights. He is further associated with the Media Law Resource Center, an organization that supports lawyers working on media and publishing law.
His volunteer work includes service with Lawyers for the Creative Arts, which was founded in 1972 by Chicago lawyers to provide free legal help to artists and arts organizations. He has also served on the board of Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence since 2005; the center was founded in 1993 after a mass shooting at a San Francisco law office. In addition, he has volunteered with the JUF Community Legal Services clinic since 2010, serving as its past chair, and during his law school years he served on the board of the Minnesota Justice Foundation, an organization supporting public-interest legal work.
Member of the Litigation and Intellectual Property Law Sections and the Forum on Communications Law
American Bar Association , United States
Chair of the Intellectual Property Section
Illinois State Bar Association , United States
2023 - 2024
Copyright Society of the USA , United States
Authors Guild , United States
Media Law Resource Center , United States
Volunteer and board member
Lawyers for the Creative Arts , United States
Board member
Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence , United States
2005 - present
Volunteer; past chair of the clinic
JUF Community Legal Services , United States
2010 - present
Board member during law school
Minnesota Justice Foundation , United States
Quotes from others about the person
Dale Kurth, who knew Baron through the Illinois State Bar Association's intellectual property council, described him as "the utmost professional, a real lawyer's lawyer."
