Mr. Stellakis is an Associate in our Land Use and Zoning Practice Group and is based in our Hauppauge office. His primary practice areas include preparing, coordinating, and presenting municipal land use and Suffolk County health department applications, and prosecuting and defending litigation concerning municipal entitlements, environmental determinations, and real property disputes. Mr. Stellakis concentrates his land use practice in the Towns of Brookhaven, Islip, and Babylon, and his litigation practice encompasses Article 78 proceedings and plenary actions regarding constitutional and property rights. He also handles real estate transactions, landlord-tenant matters, and municipal ordinance violations.

Mr. Stellakis is an Adjunct Professor of Legal Writing at Touro Law Center. He also provides pro bono services and participates in the Nassau Suffolk Law Services’ Volunteer Lawyer Project, representing indigent tenants in landlord-tenant court, and is an Access to Justice Pro Bono Provider certificate recipient.

Prior to joining Certilman Balin, Mr. Stellakis was an Associate in the Land Use, Municipal and Environmental Group at a large law firm on Long Island where his Federal and State motion, trial and appellate practice encompassed an array of matters including Article 78 litigation, municipal and zoning issues, environmental protection and liability, real property and riparian rights, and NYSDEC and NYSDOH regulatory compliance.

Mr. Stellakis earned his Juris Doctor from Villanova University School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, in Philosophy and Political Science from Villanova University. He is a graduate of Chaminade High School.

During law school, he served as the Symposium Editor and a Staff Writer for the Environmental Law Journal, and received the Outstanding Staff Writer Achievement Award. Mr. Stellakis worked as a law student attorney in the Clinic for Asylum, Refugee and Emigrant Services, representing a refugee and her family throughout the asylum process. He also served as a law clerk for a pro bono clinic assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina and for the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice Clinic. Mr. Stellakis received the Dorothy Day Award for Pro Bono Service.

Before his admission to the bar, Mr. Stellakis served as a legal extern and law clerk for The Honorable George A. Pagano and The Honorable Christopher G. Quinn, and worked for several solo practitioners ranging in practice areas.

Mr. Stellakis is a member, and past Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Young Lawyers Chairman, of the Federal Bar Association, Eastern District of New York Chapter, a member of the Suffolk County Bar Association, and the former Co-Chair of the New Lawyers Committee of the Nassau County Bar Association. He was also named by the New York Real Estate Journal in September 2021 as one of its “Ones to Watch.” He was named to the 2024 edition of Best Lawyers: “Ones to Watch.”

He is admitted to the states of New York and New Jersey, as well as the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, and the District of New Jersey.

Education
Villanova University School of Law, J.D., 2011
Villanova University, B.A., cum laude, 2008
Chaminade High School

Bar Admission
New York
New Jersey
Eastern and Southern Districts of New York
District of New Jersey

Bar Association
Federal Bar Association, Eastern District of New York Chapter
Suffolk County Bar Association

Recognitions
Best Lawyers, “Ones to Watch,” 2024
“Ones to Watch,” New York Real Estate Journal, 2021

Publications
“The Reasonable Probability Increment Rule Deluges Wetlands: Updating and Clarifying Regulatory Takings Jurisprudence,” New York Zoning Law and Practice Report (Jan/Feb 2020, Vol. 20, Issue 4)

“Standing Under New York’s State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA),” New York State Judicial institute (2020)

“U.S. Navy Torpedoes NEPA: Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council May Sink Future Environmental Pleas Brought under the National Environmental Policy Act,” Villanova Law Environmental Law Journal (2010)