American Insurance Association

J. Stephen (“Stef”) Zielezienski serves as Senior Vice President & General Counsel for the American Insurance Association. In this capacity, he directs a staff of attorneys who provide legal advice on public policy and litigation issues affecting the insurance industry at both the state and federal levels. Mr. Zielezienski joined AIA in June 1997; he became Senior Vice President and General Counsel in December 2005. Previously, he served for 2 ½ years as AIA’s deputy general counsel.

Prior to joining AIA, Mr. Zielezienski specialized in complex commercial litigation (including representation of insurers) and trade association representation with Mintz Levin, and with Wiley, Rein and Fielding. Mr. Zielezienski clerked for the Honorable Richard L. Nygaard of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Mr. Zielezienski is a 1989 graduate of Columbia Law School, where he was Executive Editor of the Columbia Business Law Review and Co-Director of the Moot Court Program, and a 1986 summa cum laude graduate of Columbia College in New York City, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.