Steve Cernak is a respected leader in the international antitrust and competition law community.  He currently is the Chair-Elect of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association and will take over as Chair in 2024.  

Prior to joining Bona Law, Steve served as in-house antitrust counsel at General Motors for 20 years, ultimately responsible for mergers, antitrust litigation, and global antitrust compliance.  As a result, Steve has experience tackling the toughest antitrust issues, and explaining them to everyone from CEOs to government investigators.

After leaving GM, Steve spent seven years at Schiff Hardin’s Ann Arbor office, serving clients both inside and outside the automotive community. As he did at Schiff Hardin, Steve now assists clients big and small on a wide array of competition and consumer protection matters, including compliance, joint efforts with rivals, pricing strategies and programs, and merger reviews and filings. 

Steve also teaches antitrust law at both the University of Michigan Law School and the Thomas M. Cooley Law School Corporate & Finance LLM program. He taught for three years at Wayne State University Law School. Steve is a prolific writer on cutting-edge topics in antitrust and competition law.  In addition to countless articles and blogs, his textbook, Antitrust Simulations, published by West Academic, is now in its second edition. His book  Antitrust in Distribution and Franchising is updated annually and published in the LexisNexis Antitrust Law & Strategy Series. Steve also is a frequent commenter on antitrust developments, both on social and mainstream media.

Steve has been recognized by Best Lawyers© in antitrust law since 2020.