Bio

K. Stephen Royce served as Managing Partner of Cuddy & McCarthy, LLP from 2019-2021, having joined the Firm in 2016 as a partner in the Albuquerque office, where he maintains a state-wide litigation practice serving clients in federal and state courts. He holds broad, cross-disciplinary experience in complex civil and commercial litigation matters, including the areas of banking, construction defect, fiduciary and probate and trust, insurance coverage and bad faith, long term care and nursing facility claims, and wrongful death and catastrophic injury matters. Mr. Royce was trial and lead prevailing appellate counsel in the New Mexico case of first impression establishing minority close corporation shareholders rights, Walta v. Gallegos Law Firm et al., 2002-NMCA-015. Mr. Royce has also effectively advocated for business and professional clients in administrative law matters before the EEOC and New Mexico Human Rights Bureau, and National Labor Relations Board matters, state professional licensing agencies and in investigations and proceedings under the False Claims Act. Possessing extensive experience in alternative dispute resolution techniques, Mr. Royce completed training as a mediator in civil disputes under the auspices of the American Arbitration Association. He has mediated numerous special education matters for Albuquerque Public Schools and presently serves as an arbitrator and settlement facilitator for the Second Judicial District in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mr. Royce additionally has served as faculty member in trial techniques for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA). An Indiana native and New Mexico resident since 1988, Mr. Royce was awarded his J.D. Degree from Indiana University-Bloomington and holds an A. B. from Indiana University-Bloomington in Political Science. During summers of his law school career he was a member of the Honors Program at the U.S. Department of Justice-Tax Division and interned for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and its Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill. Mr. Royce holds the highest AV Peer Review rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association.