Stephen Cornwell is recognized in Central California as an outstanding trial lawyer. He was named a California “Super Lawyer” in 2006. He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, one of only a few of such lawyers in Central California to be invited as a fellow in one of the nation's most prestigious trial lawyer organizations. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Trial Advocates having tried more than one hundred and fifty civil cases before a jury. Among the many clients he has represented have been judges of the Superior Court in proceedings before the Commission on Judicial Performance.

Steve attended law school at Boalt Hall at the University of California in Berkeley graduating in 1967. He is a past president of the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates and a past president of Cal-ABOTA, the organization of all California chapters of the ABOTA trial lawyers organization. He was honored to be the San Joaquin Valley Chapter's nominee for California Trial Lawyer of the Year in 1989 and 1990.

He has lectured for several organizations and has given trial demonstrations. He has been rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the pre-eminent attorney rating service in America as “AV”, the top rating, since 1983. He has acted as the chair of the plaintiff's steering committee in a multi-party fog collision and chair of the defense steering committee in the I-5 Duststorm Litigation, the largest traffic disaster in the history of the United States.

Steve has tried a wide variety of cases in court. These include wrongful termination (plaintiff's verdict $1.8 million), railroad grade crossing-dangerous condition of public property (plaintiff's verdict $1.7 million), defamation-invasion of privacy (plaintiff's verdict $200,000), violation of Fair Credit Reporting Act (plaintiff's verdict $1.2 million), Federal Tort Claims ($600,000), partnership dissolution, flood, defense of dangerous condition of public property - quadriplegic (defense verdict), and defense of auto collision - quadriplegic (defense verdict). He has settled numerous plaintiff's cases in excess of $1 million, $3 million and $4 million.