Stefan has represented clients in appellate courts across the country, including the Supreme Court of the United States. He served as counsel of record for the Conference of State Banking Supervisors (CSBS) and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators (AARMR) in a merits-stage amici brief in a 9-0 victory in Cantero v. Bank of Am., N. A., 602 U.S. 205 (2024), which involved federal bank preemption. He also served as counsel of record for CSBS and AARMR on petition and merits-stage briefs filed in another preemption-related 5-4 Supreme Court victory in Cuomo v. Clearing House Ass’n and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, 557 U.S. 519 (2007). He previously was counsel of record for CSBS in State Farm Bank v. Reardon, an OTS preemption case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Stefan also served as a legal consultant to the Office of the New Hampshire Attorney General in connection with a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the Supreme Court of the United States seeking review of the preemption case SPGGC, LLC v. Ayotte, 488 F.3d 525 (1st Cir. 2007).
Stefan has also briefed and presented oral argument repeatedly before a variety of federal and state appeals courts, including winning reversal of trial court final judgments, a rare feat. He has repeatedly represented clients with matters pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. In 2017, for example, the First Circuit affirmed in all respects a $1,063,071 trial court judgment in a case in which Stefan served as lead trial counsel and lead appellate attorney. In another case in the First Circuit, Stefan successfully settled a client’s Service members Civil Relief Act claim before oral argument. In a separate state court matter, Stefan obtained a reversal of a trial court’s dismissal of a client’s claims on statute of limitations grounds. The successful appellate court outcome led directly to a very large settlement of the client’s claims (the precise amount of which cannot be disclosed due to a highly specific confidentiality agreement).