Partner

Stephen A. Serfass serves as vice chair of the firm's Life Insurance and Annuities Practice Group. Steve concentrates his practice on issues related to stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) issues, long-term care insurance and environmental insurance, as well as commercial litigation. Steve also has significant experience resolving privacy and security compliance and breach issues related to health and financial information about individuals.

Insurance.  Steve's insurance industry practice includes representation of domestic and international insurance companies in business, claims and coverage litigation. He also has experience representing managing general agents in a variety of contexts.

Long-Term Care Insurance
Steve's practice is substantially focused long-term care insurance issues. He is the leader of the firm’s LTCI Team. He represents insurers with respect to regulatory compliance issues, policy drafting and litigation. Steve has assisted long-term care insurers in resolving complicated issues related to premium rate increases, care provider licensing and many other coverage issues. Steve has assisted carriers with antifraud issues including developing antifraud programs, providing related training and litigating against those who perpetrate fraud. He is actively involved in the Compliance Track of the Society of Actuaries’ Long Term Care Insurance Section, and he is currently serving his second term as president of the Long Term Care International Forum.

Environmental Insurance
Steve previously spent more than two years as an in-house attorney at an insurance company where he managed environmental and professional liability claims and coverage issues. During this period, Steve authored several articles concerning the proactive handling of Brownfields and underground storage tank liability exposures that appeared in industry publications. Steve currently represents environmental contractors and developers in negotiating fixed price remediation contracts, environmental liability transfer agreements and the placement of related cost cap/remediation stop loss, and pollution liability insurance policies. Steve represents insurers and insureds with respect to environmental claims and coverage issues. 

Privacy.  Steve represents insurers, managing general agents, employers and the business associates of such organizations in all facets of information privacy and security compliance, issues that arise in connection with breaches, as well as in the defense of information privacy and security related claims and coverage matters. Among other things, in connection with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and other laws, he has assisted clients by developing and implementing privacy and security compliance plans. For several clients, Steve is a go-to resource for counsel on information privacy and security matters on a daily basis. Steve also has helped develop identity theft prevention programs. Working with insurers and others who routinely handle personal information, Steve provides counsel on privacy and security insurance programs.

Stranger-Originated Insurance Issues. Steve serves as national counsel for a number of major life insurers on issues concerning STOLI and other products. Steve has helped insurers establish appropriate protocols for matters such as responding to verification of coverage requests from secondary market providers and brokers. He also serves as lead counsel on a number of STOLI lawsuits and has successfully resolved several such cases with the insurer retaining a significant portion of the premium.

In General.  Steve is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University, where he received a bachelor's degree in administration of justice in 1991. In 1996, he received his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law, where he served as articles editor for the Rutgers Law Review. Steve also served as the president of the law school student body.

Steve is a member of local, state and national bar associations. He is married, has five young children and practices out of Drinker Biddle's Philadelphia office.