Gaetan J. Alfano
The immediate past Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, GAETAN J. ALFANO is a partner with Pietragallo Gordon Alfano Bosick & Raspanti, LLP.
Prior to entering private practice, Mr. Alfano served as Assistant District Attorney where he tried cases on a nearly daily basis. In private practice, Mr. Alfano has been consistently recognized as a top commercial litigator by his peers. He has extensive trial and appellate experience in commercial and employment disputes, insurance insolvency and receivership law, as well as complex white collar criminal defense. He has tried hundreds of cases to verdict in both federal and state courts.
As an insurance insolvency practitioner, Mr. Alfano tried a reinsurance recovery case against GTE Reinsurance Company, Limited on behalf of the Pennsylvania Insurance Department as Rehabilitator for the Mutual Fire, Marine and Inland Insurance Company. The case resulted in a post-trial settlement of $44.9 million, which at the time, was the largest reinsurance recovery in Pennsylvania history.
Mr. Alfano represented the Delaware Insurance Commissioner as Receiver for National Heritage Life Insurance Company, where he was responsible for prosecuting a variety of professional liability and asset recovery actions. For over a decade, he represented the Pennsylvania Insurance Department as Liquidator for both Legion Insurance and Villanova Insurance Companies, a $3 billion insolvency.
In September 2010, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania appointed Mr. Alfano as counsel for a Securities Exchange Commission Receiver in a nationwide Ponzi scheme, SEC v. Robert Stinson, Jr., et al.. In this role, Mr. Alfano tried to verdict a private contribution claim under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act against an international ratings agency.
Mr. Alfano has represented public entities, businesses, and corporations in a variety of commercial and employment matters. In a recent case, he represented a law firm sued by a gay associate, over employment related claims in Pennsylvania state court and received a unanimous defense verdict from the jury. He also recently tried a case under the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Act, one of the few cases ever tried to verdict under the Act.
Mr. Alfano has litigated numerous cases involving business disputes among law firms and attorneys, including dissolutions, separations, client retention and transition, and fee disputes.
Mr. Alfano served for 10 years on the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission, a bi-state agency. He was appointed by both former Governors Edward G. Rendell and Tom Corbett as the Vice Chair of the agency, the highest Pennsylvania position.
Mr. Alfano has served as a Senior Member of the hearing committee of the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania and on the Court's Board of Law Examiners.
Mr. Alfano is heavily involved in community service. As a member of the Justinian Society, a group of Italian American lawyers and judges, he has held a number of offices, including Treasurer of the Justinian Foundation, the charitable arm of the Society. He has recently served on the Board of Directors of the Global Philadelphia Association, Philadelphia Volunteers for the Indigent, Philadelphia Bar Foundation and the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia.
In 2016, Governor Tom Wolf appointed Mr. Alfano to serve on the statewide Judicial Selection Commission to fill vacant positions in the state's appellate courts. Mr. Alfano was recently appointed to Philadelphia City Council's Special Committee on Criminal Justice Reform. The Committee is tasked with overhauling the City's criminal justice system.
Mr. Alfano has been nominated and selected by his peers as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer for every year from 2004 through 2017, an honor reserved for 5% of the Pennsylvania Bar. He has also been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2018 for his work in the practice area of Commercial Litigation.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103