Steve Johnson

Steve’s practice includes bankruptcy litigation and business reorganization, complex commercial litigation, debtor-creditor law, Indian law litigation, contract disputes, commercial litigation (including disputes between franchisors and franchisees, suits on commercial guarantees, repossessions and foreclosures of mixed collateral), secured transactions, real property litigation, foreclosure and quiet title actions, repossessions of personal property (replevin and claim and delivery actions), collections, personal injury and product liability litigation, farm, ranch and small business litigation, oil and gas litigation, lender liability, and business torts.

Steve is admitted to the State Bar of Montana, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the United States District Court for the District Montana, and the bars of the Blackfeet Tribal Court, the Chippewa Cree Rocky Boy Tribal Court, the Fort Belknap Tribal Court, the Fort Peck Tribal Court, and the Salish-Kootenai Tribal Court. In the past, Steve worked served as Assistant State Attorney General for the Montana Attorney General, as Assistant District Counsel for the United States Small Business Administration, and as a specially commissioned Assistant United States Attorney.

Steve is fluent in German. Prior to entering full-time legal practice in 1980, Steve studied, lived and worked in Germany for several years; taught in the German high school system as well as the German adult education system; taught German as a foreign language at the university and college level in Colorado and Michigan; and worked as a German-English translator.

Over time, Steve has served his community in a number of civic organizations, including as director and co-founder of Habitat for Humanity, Great Falls Area, Inc., and was once the Honorary Consulate for the Federal Republic of Germany for the State of Montana.

He has written law review articles and other papers on the topics of Indian jurisdiction and bankruptcy, including a chapter for the State Bar of Montana’s Commercial Law Manual “Bankruptcy and the Secured Creditor” and a paper on Creditor’s Rights under the United States’ Bankruptcy Code for a 2011 publication by INSOL, an international insolvency law organization based in London.