Attorney John Serrano was born in Porto de Mos, Portugal, to Manuel and Maria de Lourdes Serrano and immigrated - by ship - in 1960, at age 5, with his parents and his older brother, Luis Serrano, to Hartford, Connecticut. The Serrano family lived in the heart of the Portuguese-American Community in the Parkville Section of Hartford and after attending grammar school at Our Lady of Sorrows School, he went to Hartford Public High School. At Hartford High, he was President of the National Honor Society, Co-Captain of the Cross-Country Track Team, and served on the editorial board of the Owlett, the school newspaper. In 1973, he graduated in the top ten of his class from Hartford High, was named a Jacob L. & Lewis Fox Foundation Scholar, and enrolled at the University of Connecticut. After two years in Storrs, he transferred to Yale University. He graduated in 1978 from Yale with a B.A. in History. In 1980, he married Nancy Smeeth of Waterbury, and began working thereafter as a paralegal in Hartford. In 1984, he enrolled at the University of Connecticut Law School in Hartford. During his law school years, he provided invaluable assistance in helping the Our Lady of Fatima Church of Hartford with legal aspects of its purchase and construction of the new Church. He graduated from UConn Law School and became a member of the Connecticut Bar in 1987.

Attorney Serrano opened his solo practice in 1989 and in 1993, with his brother, Gabriel Serrano, he founded the law firm of Serrano & Serrano, LLC, a general practice firm which is based in West Hartford and has a satellite office in Naugatuck. His law firm is dedicated to providing legal services to Portuguese-American families of Greater Hartford and Waterbury.

Attorney Serrano is one of the founding fathers of the Portuguese Foundation, Inc., helping establish its legal existence in 1990, and serving as the organization's first President from 1990 to 1993. He provided legal assistance to the Portuguese Club of Hartford during its building expansion in the early 1990's. As the Our Lady of Fatima Church of Hartford expanded its campus in the mid to late 1990's, he provided continuing legal support, and recently provided representation of the Church during construction of its Community Center.

Attorney Serrano lives in Wethersfield with his wife, Nancy. They have three sons, Andrew, who is a freshman at the University of Connecticut, Benjamin, who is a sophomore at Kingswood-Oxford High School, and Julian, who is in the 6th grade at Kingswood-Oxford.