Stephen L. Chernof

Meet Steve

Steve Chernof is a retired shareholder, now Of Counsel with the firm. He is also currently the Reviewing Manager at Urban Land Interests in Madison, Wisconsin, responsible for working with the Operating Manager of ULI Properties, LLC, a real estate holding company. As a member of the Real Estate Practice Group in Godfrey & Kahn's Milwaukee office, his practice encompasses both sophisticated real estate and business matters. He regularly represents a variety of developers, institutional lenders, real estate brokerage companies, and others in the real estate and business fields on a wide variety of matters, including the representation of developers and others engaged in the subsidized and tax credit housing market. He frequently works with various departments of the City of Milwaukee on behalf of clients to achieve the client's goals. He has also represented the bidder in a public-private partnership in negotiating with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District to operate the District's sewerage system.

Steve graduated with honors from the University of Wisconsin Law School and is a member of the Order of the Coif, a national honorary legal society. He was the articles editor of the Wisconsin Law Review in 1968 and law clerk to the Honorable Myron L. Gordon of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, 1968-1969.

Steve chaired the West Wisconsin Avenue Task Force, a group convened by the Mayor of Milwaukee and tasked with working to revitalize a section of downtown Milwaukee. He is now President of its successor, WAM DC, LLC, which has been formed to formalize the revitalization project. Steve also co-chaired the Milwaukee Foreclosure Partnership Initiative with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. The initiative was a city effort to formulate and implement policies and programs to address the foreclosure crisis in Milwaukee. In connection with that effort, the mayor also appointed him as a co-chair of the Milwaukee Common Council/Milwaukee Special Joint Committee on the Redevelopment of Abandoned and Foreclosed Homes.