About Stephen Bernard
Stephen Bernard Ruben is a licensed attorney admitted to practice law in the State of California. He was admitted to the California State Bar in 1992 and holds bar number 160034. His license is currently in active status. Mr. Ruben is the managing director of The Ruben Law Firm, P.C., a family law firm located in San Francisco, California. He has been practicing law for over 30 years, serving clients throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
Mr. Ruben earned his Juris Doctor degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1973. Prior to law school, he completed his undergraduate education at Bethany College in West Virginia, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970. During his time at Chicago-Kent, he was recognized for his academic achievements and graduated with honors.
Mr. Ruben specializes in family law, focusing on complex, high-asset divorce cases, financial issues, spousal and child support, high-conflict custody disputes, and dissolution of non-marital and domestic partnerships. He has extensive experience in all phases of family law litigation, including trial and appellate work, mediation, arbitration, early neutral case assessment, and private judging. His practice also encompasses international child custody cases involving relocation and child abduction under the Hague Convention.
Throughout his career, Mr. Ruben has handled cases in the Superior Court of California for the County of San Francisco, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and the United States Supreme Court. He has also appeared before the California Court of Appeal on multiple occasions. Prior to founding his own firm, he worked as a prosecutor in Chicago and served as a Special Assistant Illinois Attorney General and Special Administrator for the Probate Court in Cook County.
Mr. Ruben is an active member of the State Bar of California and the State Bar of Illinois. He is also a member of the Bar Association of San Francisco, the Association of Certified Family Law Specialists, and the Lawyers Club of San Francisco. He has been recognized as a Northern California Super Lawyer since 2007 and was awarded the Family Law Litigator of the Year in California by the Family Law Institute in 2019. Mr. Ruben is fluent in English and Spanish, allowing him to serve a diverse clientele effectively.
