Education
B.A. Washington and Lee University, 1995 Cum Laude
J.D. University of Oklahoma, 2000 Order of Coif
Geren Steiner | Attorney
Geren worked almost all of his litigation matters with his career-long friend, Anton “Tony” Rupert. Together they spent endless days and night strategizing how to “win” the case. Tony and Geren are competitors. Both played sports at the collegiate level, and the desire for each, to win, was deeply ingrained before either ever picked up a law book.
Where transaction work is concerned, Geren spent four years in the commercial real estate business, and that experience allows him to go beyond the “law work” of papering a deal, to understanding the structure of the deal – the trait businessmen call “deal sense.” Geren is happy to paper a deal as instructed by a client, but more often, he makes suggestions of how the deal can be structured that clients recognize and appreciate. Lots of business lawyers “kill” deals by identifying problems, but not solutions to those problems. Not Geren; he’ll come up with a way to resuscitate a deal that means it gets closed (instead of not closed).
Where litigation is concerned, Geren routinely handles what people in the business have come to call “bet the company” cases. Seldom do these cases get tried. The financial risk is often just too great. But, sometimes these cases cannot be resolved, and they must be tried. Problem has always been that only a small handful of lawyers are willing and able to handle them. Geren and Tony are two of them. Together they have tried numerous such cases to a jury, most recently a $150 million oil and gas dispute that resulted in a (winning) defense verdict.
Whether there’s a fight over petroleum products in the North Sea, business disputes in Europe, or real estate transactions in Texas, Geren is the lawyer for all time zones.
In 2016, Geren and Tony formed their own firm, Rupert & Steiner. Geren continued representing clients in complex international litigation, and also assisting clients with property acquisitions, leasing and financing. But, he and Tony also started a new adventure: representing the plaintiff, the “little guy,” in personal injury or class action litigation. This evolution was inevitable, with both Tony and Geren long wanting to bring their talents to help those who really need it. In addition to the usual commercial litigation and transaction practice, they will also focus on the “plaintiff side” of personal injury cases and class actions.
In private life, Geren is a devoted father and husband. His wife, Stacey, is his partner, best friend and lifeline (she knows it, too!). His two sons Jackson and Nathan are 15 and 12, respectively. Geren coached his boys’ sports teams for years, but mostly Geren enjoys whatever time the boys see fit to give him.