Steven H. Steinglass is a graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (1964) and the Columbia University School of Law (1967). Following law school, Steinglass practiced law in Wisconsin, initially as Staff Attorney under the Reginald Heber Smith Fellowship Program and ultimately as Director of Legal Action of Wisconsin, Inc., the state's largest legal services program. He also served as a Lecturer in Law at the University of Wisconsin Law School. He joined the CSU|LAW faculty in 1980. His teaching areas include Civil Procedure, Federal Jurisdiction, Section 1983 Litigation, State Constitutional Law, and Ohio Constitutional History.

Steinglass is a nationally known expert on Section 1983 Civil Rights Litigation and a frequent lecturer at continuing legal and judicial education programs throughout the country. He is the author of a leading treatise on civil rights, Section 1983 Litigation in State Courts (updated annually) and numerous law review articles and book chapters. He is also the author of The Ohio Constitution: A Reference Guide (with Gino J. Scarselli), which was published in 2004 by Greenwood Publishing (and now published by Oxford University Press as part of its state constitutional law series). Steinglass has argued two cases before the United States Supreme Court: Board of Regents v. Roth (1972) and Felder v. Casey (1988).

From 1994 to 1996 Steinglass served as Associate Dean of the College of Law. In 1996 he was appointed Interim Dean; in 1997 he was appointed the twelfth Dean of Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and served in that capacity until 2005, when he returned to the faculty and was appointed Dean Emeritus by the Cleveland State University Board of Trustees.

In the fall 2011 semester, Steinglass was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Widener University School of Lawspring (Delaware), and in the spring 2012 semester, he was a visiting professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. During the 2012-13 academic year, he was Distinguished Visiting Professor at St. Louis University School of Law.