Stephen Rosenfeld’s first foray into legal practice was as assistant legal counsel to the Poor People’s Campaign in Washington, D.C., in 1968. During that year he co-authored Hunger U.S.A., the report of the Board of Inquiry into Hunger and Malnutrition in America, the first report to recommend a national Food Stamp Program, which was created in 1972. He then moved to Boston to become the founding Executive Director of the Boston Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, where he served from 1968-1972. During that time he co-authored The Quality of Justice in the Lower Criminal Courts of Metropolitan Boston, the so-called “Orange Book”, which led to major reforms in the Massachusetts District Courts, including the end of trial de novo.

Stephen taught law at NYU Law School for three years, returning to Massachusetts to become the first chief of the Government Bureau, 1975-1979, under newly elected Attorney General Francis X. Bellotti. After three years in private practice, 1979-1982, he became Legal Counsel and later Chief of Staff to Governor Michael Dukakis (1983-1991). In 1996, he created a law firm designed exclusively to represent individuals and groups seeking health and medical benefits denied by insurers and providers. That firm now carries the name Rosenfeld & Rafik. Also in 1996 he founded Health Law Advocates, a public interest law firm dedicated to health law reform through individual litigation and class actions. HLA is now in its 27th year. At different points in his career, he taught courses at NYU Law School, Boston College Law School, and Northeastern School of Law.