Elliot R. Zinger

Mr. Zinger been a trial lawyer since he graduated with honors from The John Marshall Law School in June of 1980.  At the time of graduation, Mr. Zinger was the only night student who participated in The John Marshall Law Review. His Law Review Comment, entitled “The McDonald’s Antitrust Litigation Real Estate Tying Agreements in Trademark Franchising,” Vol. 13, Spring 1980, was published in the John Marshall Law School Journal in June of 1980.

Mr. Zinger began his legal career as an Assistant Public Defender in Cook County, trying hundreds of criminal and civil cases. As an Assistant Public Defender, Mr. Zinger handled approximately 15 appeals in criminal cases (mostly First Degree Murder), including the notorious murder case of People v. Patricia Colombo, decided in the Supreme Court of Illinois circa 1983 (and later argued by then Public Defender James J. Doherty in the Supreme Court of the United States; the legal issue that Zinger developed was the only issue raised by Mr. Doherty in the U.S. Supreme Court).

After his tenure as an Assistant Public Defender, Mr. Zinger spent the next 35 years in private practice handling complex criminal cases, personal injury cases and civil rights cases. In his first Federal Civil Rights trial, in 1986, Hughes v. Pascente, 86 CV 8639, (Hon. Judge Prentice Marshall, presiding),  Zinger won a $410,000 jury verdict ($160,000 compensatory, $250,000 punitive) in a Sec. 1983 case where plaintiff was beaten with a flashlight by a Chicago Police Officer. The City offered $15,000 before trial.