Steven serves as both Co-Chair of Archer’s Estates and Trusts Department and Chair of the firm’s Estate and Trust Litigation Group. Steve focuses on commercial litigation, including litigation involving probate matters, estates, trusts, gifts, fiduciaries, guardianships, and real estate, handling cases in the state and federal courts, at both the trial and appellate levels. Representing both institutions and individuals, Steve’s clients include banks, corporate fiduciaries, investment companies, educational and charitable institutions, and real estate firms, as well as beneficiaries of estates and trusts, executors, trustees, guardians, incapacitated persons, surviving spouses, and persons having an interest in real estate.
Steve serves on the Advisory Committee of the Heckerling Institute. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) and holds several leadership roles in ACTEC, including: State Chair for New Jersey; Chair of ACTEC’s Fiduciary Litigation Committee; and the ACTEC Board of Regents. He is active in ACTEC in several other areas, including the Professional Responsibility Committee, the Program Committee, the Joint Task Force of ACTEC and the National College of Probate Judges, and the Advisory Committee to ACTEC’s Mid-Atlantic Fellows Institute.
Active in the American Bar Association (ABA), Steve has held leadership roles in the ABA’s Real Property, Trust and Estate Law Section, including: Chair of the Litigation, Ethics and Malpractice Group, as well as Chair of the Group’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee and Probate and Fiduciary Litigation Committee; Section Liaison to the ABA Dispute Resolution Advisory Committee; and several administrative Committees in the Section.
Steve is a national lecturer and author. He has lectured and published for the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, the Heckerling Institute, the National College of Probate Judges, the New Jersey Bar Association, the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education, the American Law Institute Continuing Legal Education Group, the American Bar Association, the Duke University Estate Planning Conference, the Delaware Trust Conference, and Estate Planning Councils around the country. He authors the treatise, Estate and Trust Litigation, and is the editor and contributing author of The New Jersey Estate Planning Manual and New Jersey Probate Procedures Manual. In 2017, the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education honored him with the Distinguished Service Award. Steve is also a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a national honorary society for trial lawyers.
Steve has been with Archer since 1988, when he joined the firm as a law clerk. He remains active in various charitable and community organizations, including the Philly Pops, Alicia Rose Victorious Foundation, the Loyola Executive Council and the Barbelin Society of St. Joseph’s University, the Chevaliers du Tastevin, and the Knights of Columbus. In 2020, Steve was recognized by the Camden County Bar Association as the Professional Lawyer of the Year, through the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law. In 2017, Steve received the Excalibur Award from the Bishop Eustace Preparatory School Alumni Association, recognizing his lifetime achievement in civic, religious, humanitarian, and professional endeavors.
Representative Experience
- Represent institutions, including banks, corporate fiduciaries, investment companies, real estate firms, and title insurance companies.
- Represent individuals, including the beneficiaries of estates and trusts, executors, trustees, guardians, incapacitated persons, surviving spouses, investors, realtors, and persons having an interest in real estate.
Professional and Community Involvement
- Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC)
- State Chair, ACTEC for New Jersey
- Chair, ACTEC Fiduciary Litigation Committee
- Member of the Advisory Committee of the Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning
- Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC)
- Member of ACTEC’s Professional Responsibility Committee, Program Committee, and Fiduciary Litigation Committee and its Subcommittee on Fiduciary Surcharge and Damages/Remedies
- Member, Senior Advisory Committee, ACTEC Mid-Atlantic Fellows Institute
- American Bar Association
- Professional Member, National College of Probate Judges
- Senior Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America, The Trial Lawyer Honorary Society (includes membership in the Diversity Law Institute and Trial Law Institute)
- Member, Board of Directors, The Philly POPS
- Member, Board of Trustees, Alicia Rose Victorious Foundation
- Knights of Columbus
- Member, Tavistock Country Club
- The Loyola Executive Council and the Barbelin Society of St. Joseph’s University
- Chevaliers du Tastevin
Select Articles
- “Challenges for Probate Judges: Trust Investments and Diversification,” National College of Probate Judges Fall Journal (2020)
- Main author of the treatise, Estate and Trust Litigation
- Editor and contributing author, The New Jersey Estate Planning Manual and New Jersey Probate Procedures Manual, New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education
Past Speaking Engagements and Seminars
- “Developing Trends in Probate Law & the Exercise of Judicial Discretion in the Surrogates’ Courts: Understanding the Unique Position of the Surrogate in the New Jersey Judiciary and the Statutes, Cases and Court Rules Which Guide the Operation of the Surrogates’ Courts and the Exercise of Judicial Discretion,” Surrogate’s Section’s Annual Convention, Constitutional Officers Association of New Jersey (September 2023)
- Estate, Gift Tax and Fiduciary Litigation Update, NJSBA Annual Meeting and Convention (May 2023)
- Ethical and Practical Challenges for Trust and Estate Professionals in Dealing with Increasingly Diverse Clients (February 2023)
- 10th Annual Estate Litigation Seminar (November 2022)