Attorney Profile

Practice Areas: Governmental Affairs; Insurance and Reinsurance; Litigation; Real Estate; Health Care
Areas of Emphasis: Administrative Law; Commercial Litigation
Bar Admissions: New Jersey; U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey; United States Supreme Court
Education: Tulane Law School, J.D., cum laude, 1983; Lafayette College, B.A., 1980
Professional Activities: New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on the Tax Court; New Jersey Public Officers Salary Review Commission; Chairman of the Board of Directors, State Law Resources Inc.

John M. Pellecchia

Partner

John M. Pellecchia is recognized internationally as a leader in legislative and governmental affairs, regulatory, compliance, and administrative matters. Regulated companies, corporate boards and top management have regularly turned to John for his counsel and advocacy in all branches of government for over 20 years. His clients have included leaders in the telecommunications, gaming, professional sports, health, retail, horse racing, real estate, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, utilities, insurance and financial services industries.

As Assistant Counsel to Governor Thomas H. Kean in the mid-1980s, John was instrumental in the crafting, negotiation and passage of Governor Kean’s Tort Reform Initiatives, which included the New Jersey Product Liability Act of 1987, the first statutory law of its kind in the nation. In addition, John advised Governor Kean on judicial and prosecutorial appointments, and law and public policy issues involving the Departments of Banking, Insurance, Treasury, Labor and Law and Public Safety.

In peer-review ratings and international organizations, John has been recognized for both his legal ability and his leadership. Some of the leading lawyers in his field have elected John to be Chairman of the Board of Directors of State Law Resources, Inc., an international organization of law firms selected for experience and demonstrated abilities in handling administrative, regulatory and government relations issues. John has been named among the top governmental relations lawyers in Best Lawyers in America®, and holds a Martindale-Hubbell® AV rating, the highest peer review rating for legal ability that an attorney can attain. He has also been named a "Super Lawyer" by Law & Politics magazine.

John has a reputation for persistently protecting the rights of his clients when they are threatened by overreaching acts of governments. Recently, on behalf of CIGNA, he won a significant victory by convincing the New Jersey Supreme Court to invalidate a regulatory assessment formula imposed on all health insurers in the state. In re New Jersey IHCP, 179 N.J. 570 (2004).

John appears regularly in the Chancery, Law and Appellate Divisions of the Superior Court, the Tax Court and the Administrative Law courts. He handles complex real estate, taxation and regulatory cases. He is fully familiar with the principles of actuarial science, statutory accounting for insurers, the appraisal of real estate, and the trial of cases involving these expert fields. He also has handled RICO, securities and product liability matters in state and federal court, and was one of four attorneys responsible for the national coordination of product liability asbestos cases on behalf of a major asbestos product manufacturer.

Admitted to practice law before the federal and state courts in New Jersey and the United States Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of New Jersey Supreme Court has appointed John to serve as a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on the Tax Court for three terms. He is a career-long member of the American Bar Association.

John is active in numerous business, charitable, community and political organizations, as fundraiser, volunteer and board member. He has served on the Board of Directors of a property and casualty insurance company. He served for over a decade on the Boards of Trustees of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America, Inc./Northern New Jersey Chapter and the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. During his years on the non-profit Boards, he was elected to positions of Secretary, Executive Committee member and Chair of Long-Range and Strategic Planning. John also currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of the Schiff Natural Lands Trust.

Most recently, John has been appointed to the 2007 term of the New Jersey Public Officers Salary Review Commission. The seven-member Commission convenes once every four years to review and make recommendations on the salaries of the Governor, cabinet officers, the Legislature, the Judiciary, administrative law judges, county prosecutors, the Board of Public Utilities, Casino Control Commission, State Commission of Investigation, the Tax Court, and workers' compensation judges.

John is a cum laude graduate of Tulane Law School, where he studied civil, common, international and comparative law. While at Tulane he was appointed a Senior Fellow to teach legal research and writing to first-year law students. John received his Bachelor of Arts from Lafayette College with a major in Government and Law. During college he studied the law and economics of the European Community at the City of London Polytechnic, London, England.