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Stephen Dane, Relman, Dane & Colfax PLLC Photo

Stephen M. Dane

Partner

Stephen Dane is a Partner at Relman, Dane & Colfax. Steve joined the firm in 2005. His civil rights litigation practice focuses on the Fair Housing Act, with an emphasis on insurance redlining, mortgage lending discrimination, and equal credit opportunity.

Steve is nationally recognized in the mortgage lending and insurance discrimination fields and has litigated a number of significant lending and insurance discrimination cases. He was lead counsel for plaintiffs in the class action litigation, Toledo Fair Housing Center v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., resulting in a $5.35 million settlement, and was co-counsel for the plaintiffs in HOME of Richmond v. Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co., ending in a $100.5 million jury verdict. Steve has testified before both houses of Congress on mortgage lending discrimination issues and is the author of many articles in the field.

Steve has also litigated several accessible design and construction cases, such as National Fair Housing Alliance, Inc. v. A.G. Spanos Companies, which centered on 82 multi-family projects constructed around the country since 1991, and which resulted in a settlement valued at $15 million, and several claims involving local and state governments’ failures to “affirmatively further fair housing” as a condition of their receipt of federal funding. Steve also served as co-lead counsel in the successful fair housing challenge to Alabama’s immigration reform legislation. Before joining the firm, his notable fair housing cases included Preferred Properties, Inc. v. Indian River Estates, 276 F.3d 790 (6th Cir. 2002), where the Sixth Circuit upheld a $156,000 jury verdict and, in a case of first impression, establishing the criteria for punitive damages awards under the Fair Housing Act, and Toledo Fair Housing Center v. Nationwide Insurance, a class action against one of the nation’s largest homeowners’ insurers for racial redlining in the City of Toledo, obtaining substantial monetary and injunctive relief in settlement.

Prior to joining the firm, Steve was a shareholder and served as president of the Ohio litigation firm, Cooper & Walinski, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in complex civil litigation throughout the United States. In 2010 and 2011, he served as President of the Toledo Bar Association. He also served as Acting Judge of the Perrysburg, Ohio, Municipal Court for 17 years, and is a former Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of the Diocese of Toledo.

Steve has received numerous awards and honors, including the Public Interest Law Award from Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, the Community Access Award from the Ability Center of Toledo, the Fair Housing Award from the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, the Award of Excellence for the Promotion of Equal Housing Opportunity for All People from the National Fair Housing Alliance, HUD's Fair Housing Award for Outstanding Contribution and Commitment to Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, and The University of Toledo College of Law Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 1998, Mr. Dane was selected as one of eight Lawyers of the Year by Ohio Lawyers Weekly. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America© in the field of civil rights. He is also editor of the Civil Rights Insider, the quarterly e-newsletter of the Federal Bar Association’s Civil Rights Law Section.

Featured Cases

Hollis v. Chestnut Bend Homeowners Association
In this successful appeal of a homeowners association refusal to permit reasonable modifications to dwelling, the Sixth Circuit established the analytical framework for evaluating reasonable modification claims under the Fair Housing Act.
National Fair Housing Alliance v. Spanos
Federal court holds fifth-largest private apartment developer in the country liable for a “continuing violation” of federal accessibility requirements. Settlement required retrofitting of 12,300 apartment units at 82 apartment complexes in 11 states, with a total settlement value of nearly $15 million.
Anti-Discrimination Center v. Westchester County
After federal court granted summary judgment for the firm’s client, case settled, requiring County to spend nearly $52 million in County funds to develop at least 750 affordable housing units in high-opportunity neighborhoods.

Publications

S. Dane, The Potential Impact of Texas Department of Housing and of Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project on Future Civil Rights Enforcement and Compliance, The Federal Lawyer (July 2016).

S. Dane, T. Ramchandani, and A. Bellows, Discriminatory Maintenance of REO Properties as a Violation of the Federal Fair Housing Act, 17 CUNY L. Rev. 383 (2015).

S. Dane, Race Discrimination Is Not Risk Discrimination: Why Disparate Impact Analysis of Homeowners Insurance Practices Is Here to Stay, Banking & Financial Services Policy Report (June 2014).

S. Dane, The Exposure of Securitization Trustees to Liability Under the Fair Housing Act for Poorly Maintained Real Estate Owned Properties, Banking L. J. (Feb. 2014).

S. Dane, Eliminating the Labyrinth: A Proposal to Simplify Federal Mortgage Lending Discrimination Laws, 26 U. Mich. J. L. Ref. 527 (1993).

Education

J.D., University of Toledo College of Law

B.S., University of Notre Dame

Admissions

District of Columbia
Ohio

Clerkships

Hon. Pierce Lively, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

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