Story by Logan Jackson
Brent Steele’s recent return to the Mizzou campus brought on a wave of nostalgia. Steele interacted with a variety of students, including several in the Honors College, took in a football game and visited many of his favorite spots across campus.
It was Steele’s first Mizzou visit since he earned accountancy degrees in 2006.
“I love Columbia; it’s such a great town,” Steele said. “It’s changed a lot – both the coffee and bagel options have radically improved – but in many ways, it felt the same. It was very comforting to be back on campus. Mizzou is such a great school, and I really valued my time as a Tiger.”
Mizzou wasn’t Steele’s top choice when he began his college search. Growing up in Saint Charles, Missouri, Steele was originally interested in travelling across state lines to attend Northwestern University. As he did more research, though, he learned about the various opportunities offered through the Mizzou Honors College.
“I realized that the Honors College offered that high-touch, small-school experience within a much bigger land-grant university,” Steele said. “It seemed like a great fit for my interests and it would challenge me academically. I really liked the experience once I got involved.”
Steele took several General Honors courses early on during his time as a Tiger. He spent the later part of his academic career working toward degrees in accountancy. As part of the Master in Accountancy program, he even had the opportunity to work with other students as a teaching assistant for intro accounting courses.
“I knew I wanted to study something in business, and I thought accounting was a good foundation, regardless of what I pursued as a career,” Steele said. “Mizzou has such a strong accountancy program with a pipeline to the ‘Big Four’ and many other accounting firms, and I thought the opportunity to do an internship in the middle of the academic year during the accounting ‘busy season’ was really valuable.”
Beyond his classroom work, Steele was heavily involved in the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He lived in the fraternity house for four years and helped recruit students as the rush chairman. Steele was also active with the Mizzou Writing Center.
“I was a Writing Center tutor, and I thought it was a really great experience,” Steele said. “(Former director) Dr. (Elaine) Hocks was incredible. She was so thoughtful and even keeled. The Writing Center is a valuable resource, and I think it was just as valuable for the tutors as the students looking for help with a paper. I learned a lot as a tutor, including how to approach writing as a collaborative process, and the experience served me well in graduate school and it still serves me well in my career.”
After his time at Mizzou, Steele went on to the University of Michigan Law School where he was connected with Sidley Austin LLP, a multinational law firm with approximately 2,300 lawyers in 21 offices across the world. Steele was a summer associate at Sidley while at Michigan and when he graduated with his J.D. in 2009, he moved to Chicago to join the firm full time. He was promoted to partner in 2018.
“My practice is focused on mergers and acquisitions, including private equity,” Steele said. “While my role has definitely changed over 15-plus years at Sidley, it has fundamentally stayed the same. I spend most of my day working with big teams of really smart people on complicated transactions. While I love the intellectual challenge of being an M&A lawyer, at this stage of my career, I also really like the mentoring aspect of my job. I think law is still very much an apprenticeship, and I can’t imagine where I’d be if I didn’t have so many strong mentors at Sidley. It’s rewarding for me to give back to more junior lawyers.”
Steele’s visit to Mizzou allowed him to share his work with Honors College students who have similar interests or are pursuing work in related fields, including students interested in pursuing paths in law, investment banking and accounting.
“It was really energizing to interact with the Honors College students,” Steele said. “I came away so impressed. The students are obviously very talented and asked some really insightful questions. I hope to keep in touch with the Honors students I met, and hopefully there will be opportunities for me to help them along their journeys. Growing up, I didn’t know anyone who worked at a law firm like Sidley, so I’m hopeful that I can provide a window into that world for students who are interested in pursuing a career similar to mine.”