Biography
James D. Zirin, a leading trial lawyer for over 35 years, is a partner in the New York office of Sidley Austin LLP which he joined in 1993. He had previously been a partner in Breed, Abbott & Morgan. For three years, he was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and served in the criminal division under Robert M. Morgenthau.
Mr. Zirin has appeared in state and federal courts around the nation. His practice has featured the defense of major accounting firms charged with violations of professional responsibility and in substantial class actions. These matters have included the American Express salad oil and Equity Funding cases, where he represented Deloitte, and the IOS and DeLorean litigations. His clients have included The Rockefeller Foundation, Merrill Lynch, Citibank, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and the City of New York. He represented a Brazilian trader who was a significant figure in the silver debacle of 1979 and 1980. He handles white collar criminal cases, shareholders' litigation, directors and officers liability cases and patent infringement suits. His experience includes litigation involving reinsurance on the London market and arbitration.
He recovered over $100 million in cash and property for Armco in its requirements contract litigation with Allied Chemical. He appeared in major estates litigation, most notably the Rothko case, the estate of William S. Todman, and the estate litigation involving the expressionist artist, Max Beckmann. He served as an arbitrator in the complex disputes involving the limited partnership owning the Helmsley Palace Hotel. He successfully represented a take-over target against a $90 million claim for a break-up fee, and the City of New York in resisting a class action seeking over $2 billion, in connection with investments made by the Teachers' Retirement System. He recovered a large judgment for a placement agent against a substantial private equity fund after the fund appealed unsuccessfully to the Third Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.
James D. Zirin has written over 100 op-ed articles for Forbes, Barron's, the LA Times, the London Times, the Washington Times and the New York Law Journal. He is co-host with James Goodale of the weekly prime time cable television program "The Digital Age" where he interviewed such noted guests as Governor Thomas Kean, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Ambassador Frank Wisner and Princeton Dean Anne-Marie Slaughter. He spoke on the litigation aspects of "Accessing the American Capital Markets" at the São Paulo Stock Exchange, São Paulo, Brazil; on officers and directors liability at an insurance colloquium in Santiago, Chile; and on the resolution of China disputes through international arbitration at Fudan University, Shanghai. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the executive committee of The Pilgrims of the United States. In August 2003, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg appointed him to the New York City Commission to Combat Police Corruption.
He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, chair of its international committee and a past chair of its alternatives for dispute resolution committee where he was cited by the College for "outstanding leadership"; a member of the advisory board of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton; a trustee of New York Law School; and a member of the Consolidated Corporate Fund Leadership Committee of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He is a member of the Board of Editors of the New York Law Journal. He is listed in "Best Lawyers in America" and "Who's Who in America."
A graduate of Princeton with honors, Mr. Zirin received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School where he was an editor of the Michigan Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. He is married to Marlene Hess and has two children.
December 31, 2007
