Roseland, New Jersey - April 5, 2016 - Brian G. Steller, a partner in Connell Foley LLP’s Insurance Group, has been appointed to the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the Judicial Council of the Third Judicial Circuit. The appointment, which runs for a three-year term, was made at the recommendation of the Court of Appeals Judges from the District of New Jersey.
The role of the Lawyers Advisory Committee is to comment on proposed rules of the circuit and on certain Judicial Council matters. Committee members also serve as liaisons between the court and the legal community. Mr. Steller is one of only three attorneys from New Jersey to serve on the Committee.
A certified Civil Trial Attorney, Mr. Steller focuses primarily on insurance defense and coverage, professional and product liability, and corporate liability matters. With the courtroom as his office, he has tried to verdict well over 60 jury trials in both state and federal courts. Mr. Steller is also an accomplished appellate attorney, having argued before the New Jersey Court of Appeals on more than 30 occasions and before the New Jersey Supreme Court on four occasions for his clients.
Mr. Steller regularly advises primary and excess carriers in the full range of insurance defense matters, including cases where the exposure is well in excess of $5 million. This includes representing commercial, corporate and individual defendants in high exposure personal injury defense matters.
Mr. Steller is an active member of the New Jersey State and Essex County Bar Associations. He was elected President of the Essex County Bar Association in 2003 and was sworn into his post by then-New Jersey Supreme Court Associate Justice James R. Zazzali. He is the Past President of the Northern New Jersey Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and has served on ABOTA’s National Board of Directors. He remains a Life Fellow of ABOTA’s National Foundation and was responsible for the creation of ABOTA’s National Trial College.
Mr. Steller was recognized for his trial skills as early as 1995, having received the Civil Trial Attorney Achievement Award from the Essex County Bar Association that year. In 2015, he was named the John B. LaVecchia Award recipient by the Northern New Jersey Chapter of ABOTA. During law school, he clerked for the Newark, New Jersey firm of former Chief Justice Zazzali. He began his legal career in 1982 as the law clerk to one of New Jersey’s finest trial judges, the Hon. Murray G. Simon.