Steven Hess has been practicing law for 40 years, and has practiced as military counsel since 1991 as a Judge Advocate (JA), serving in various positions in the U.S. Army Reserve, as defense counsel, administrative law, and legal assistance, Deputy Staff Judge Advocate (DSJA), and SJA for a U.S. Army Reserve engineer group, and served as Chief, Legal Assistance at Fort Hood, Texas. From 1993 until late 1999, he was a capital trial defense counsel in Oklahoma. He deployed to Iraq in 2003 as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. From 2007 until he retired in January 2024, Steven worked as an IDES (Integrated Disability Evaluation System) attorney, representing several thousand Soldiers in the Medical Evaluation Board and Physical Evaluation Board process. From 2008 until about 2015, he also worked with National Guard and Reserve Soldiers from Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, being processed through the IDES process, and the Non-Duty Related (NDR) process.