Stephen Goodman, a longtime partner and practice leader at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, a jazz musician and a pioneer in emerging business law, died Friday morning at the age of 77, his former firm said.

“Steve was a towering figure in the Philadelphia legal and business community,” Morgan Lewis chair Jami McKeon said in a message to the firm. “His reputation was fully earned by his dedicated and skilled counsel to his clients, his kindness to others and active support of both clients and younger lawyers, and his special way of fully embracing his love of the law alongside his love of life, entrepreneurs, music and his family.”

Goodman, who recently retired from Morgan Lewis, joined the firm in 1994, bringing with him an established practice in representing early-stage businesses. He founded the firm's emerging businesses and technology practice.

In Philadelphia, “the startup community exists because of Steve Goodman,” said Joanne Soslow of Morgan Lewis, a longtime colleague.

After serving as a clerk in the U.S. court of appeals and U.S. Supreme Court, Goodman started his practice at his own firm, which he launched in 1969 with fellow graduates of the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He continued there until 1983, when he joined Wolf Block. He practiced at Wolf Block for the next 11 years before joining Morgan Lewis.

Soslow, who worked with Goodman from the beginning of her career at Wolf Block and joined him at Morgan Lewis in 1995, said only a few other law firms had emerging growth practices at that time. “It was just too risky,” she said.

“Now we look at it and every large law firm, every small law firm, has an emerging businesses platform… that all was created because of him,” she said, noting practices at firms including Ballard Spahr and Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr.

Goodman counseled and helped develop a number of local businesses, including CDNow, VerticalNet, ICG Commerce, and David's Bridal. David's Bridal's founders, the Erlbaum family, owned a number of ventures that Goodman represented beginning in the late 1960s.

Several of the companies Goodman has represented over the years were sold or no longer exist, but he went on to represent their founders in other ventures.

“As a person, he was and always was a relationship person, before relationships were something that people used in the practice of law,” Soslow said. “He never thought of his clients as clients. He thought of them as friends and long-term relationships.”

He was also a key supporter of Dreamit Ventures, a Philadelphia-based accelerator, according to a 2017 profile of Goodman by Technical.ly Philly, and he advised all of Dreamit's co-founders in their previous startup ventures. That profile referred to Goodman as “the fairy godfather of Philadelphia startups.”

The Legal named Goodman one of its Lifetime Achievement Award winners in 2015.

Goodman was also a jazz pianist, often seen performing at clubs and events in the Philadelphia area. He played regularly at the 23rd Street Cafe and Taylor's Country store, and released multiple CDs with his jazz trio.

In her message to the firm Friday about Goodman's death, McKeon highlighted both the legacy of his legal practice and his musicianship.

“He prided himself as a jazz musician who practiced law.” McKeon wrote. “He often noted the common themes existing within both the practice of law and improvisational jazz, including 'melody' (which he compared to the 'mission statement' of a venture), 'audience,' 'listening,' 'spontaneity,' 'improvisation,' and 'integration.'”

Goodman is survived by Janis Goodman, his wife of 38 years; daughter, Rachel; son, Carl; daughter-in-law Jennifer; and two grandchildren, as well as his dog, Snippet.