Eric H. Zagrans
Managing Partner
eric@zagrans.com
Columbus +1.216.771.1000
Direct +1.440.452.7100
Managing Partner
eric@zagrans.com
Columbus +1.216.771.1000
Direct +1.440.452.7100
Eric Zagrans is the managing partner of Zagrans Law Firm LLC. He is a nationally-known trial and appellate lawyer whose more than 35 years’ experience in complex business litigation and sophisticated transactional matters includes prior service as Associate General Counsel of Ernst & Young, national director of litigation at its predecessor firm, Ernst & Whinney, and partner at two prominent large (AmLaw 100) national law firms. His practice concentrates in cases and class actions involving securities, ERISA, antitrust, accounting and auditing liability, bankruptcy, director and officer liability, corporate investigations and white-collar defense, intellectual property, policyholder rights and other “bet-the-company” complex litigation in the financial services, capital markets, health care, high-tech and manufacturing industries.
Zagrans has successfully represented Fortune 500 companies and other clients in significant litigation in most state jurisdictions and in 25 federal districts throughout the United States, and has tried over 40 jury trials and countless bench trials. He also maintains an active appellate practice before the United States Supreme Court and the United States Courts of Appeals for the D.C., Second, Fourth, Sixth, Seventh and Ninth Circuits, as well as in the Supreme Court of Ohio. In just the last few terms of the U.S. Supreme Court, he has argued a precedent-setting case concerning the scope of federal removal jurisdiction and filed certiorari and merits briefs on behalf of parties and amici curiae in five other cases.
Eric formerly served as law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he became a nationally-recognized expert in the areas of federal jurisdiction, civil procedure, class actions, evidence, constitutional law and Section 1983 litigation, and law director of the City of North Ridgeville, Ohio. He is one of an elite handful of lawyers currently in private practice who were formerly in-house counsel at one of the Big Four accounting firms at the partner level.
Zagrans’ honors include peer ratings as Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent for the last 26 consecutive years, selection in Ohio SuperLawyers for Business Litigation each year since 2010, inclusion in Best Lawyers in America for 2012, 2013 and 2014 and Chambers USA Guide for 2012 and 2013, and being named the winner of the first annual “Iron Lawyer” award for best jury summation presented in 2008 by the judges of the Northern District of Ohio and the Federal Bar Association. He is a Life Member of the American Law Institute and the Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference, and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
United States Supreme Court
United States Courts of Appeals
United States District Courts
Ohio Supreme Court
California Supreme Court
Concluded Class Actions
Current Class Action Cases
Complex Business Litigation and Class Actions
Securities Litigation
Appellate and Supreme Court Practice
Auditor and Accountant Liability
Shareholder Litigation and Corporate Investigations
ERISA and Pension Benefit Litigation
Antitrust and Trade Regulation
Bankruptcy and Restructuring Litigation
Insurance Recovery – Policyholder Litigation
Intellectual Property and Deceptive Trade Practices Litigation
Governmental Liability, Municipal Law and Section 1983 Civil Rights Actions
Director and Officer Liability Claims
SEC investigations and FINRA arbitrations
Professional Liability (medical and legal malpractice)
White-Collar Defense
Industry/Sector Experience
Financial Services
Capital Markets
Health Care
Energy
Technology
Manufacturing
Distribution and Franchising
Pharmaceuticals
Private Equity/Venture Capital
Public/Government/Education
Real Estate/Development
Environmental/Toxic Chemical Spills
Media and Entertainment
Sports and Entertainment
Harvard Law School, J.D., 1977 (national champion and winner of “Best Advocate” award, National Mock Trial Competition, Houston, 1976)
University of Notre Dame, A.B. magna cum laude, 1974
Ohio (1977)
District of Columbia (1978)
United States Supreme Court (1981)
United States Courts of Appeals
United States District Courts
Life Member, American Law Institute
Life Member, Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference
Fellow, American Bar Foundation
Selected in Best Lawyers in America, 2013-2014
Selected in Chambers U.S.A. Guide, 2012-2013
Selected in Ohio SuperLawyers for Business Litigation, 2010-2014
Selected in Cleveland’s Best Lawyers, 2013
Selected in Cleveland’s Top-Rated Lawyers for Business Litigation, 2012-2013
Board certified, Civil Trial Specialist, National Board of Trial Advocacy, 1997
Winner, first annual “Iron Lawyer” award presented by the judges of the Northern District of Ohio and the Federal Bar Association for best jury summation
American Bar Association, 1978-present (Sections of Litigation, Business Law, Antitrust Law and Tort & Insurance Practice) (Section of Litigation Committees on Appellate Practice, Corporate Counsel, Federal Procedure, Professional Liability, Trial Evidence, Trial Practice and Class Actions)
Ohio State Bar Association, 1978-1992, 2006-present
District of Columbia Bar Association, 1978-present
Cleveland Bar Association, 1978-present
Member, Advisory Committee on Local Rules for the Northern District of Ohio under the Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990, United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, 1991-1994
Approved ADR panelist, United States District Court, Northern District of Ohio, 1992-1998
American Corporate Counsel Association, 1988-1992
Ohio Association of Civil Trial Attorneys, 1981-1988
Under Color of What Law: A Reconstructed Mode/ of Section 1983 Liability, 71 VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW 499-598 (May 1985)
“Successfully Defending the White-Collar Client” BEST PRACTICES FOR WHITE COLLAR LITIGATION (Inside the Minds Series) (Aspatore Books 2006)
“Civil Rights Actions Against State and Local Governments, Agencies and Officials,” CLEVE. BAR ASS’N (1985)
KOYKKA’S OHIO APPELLATE PRACTICE, Anderson Publishing Co. (2nd ed. 1988) (co-author)
“Federal Civil Rights Liability of Local Governments and Their Employees Under Section 1983,” OHIO MUNICIPAL LAW, Chap. 41A, Gotherman and Babbit, ed. 1986 (co-author)
“Liability of Council Members Under 42 U.S.C. 1983,” 33 THE PRACTICAL LAWYER 83-88 (Mar. 1987) (co-author)
“Liability of City Council Members,” TRIAL, July 1986 (co-author)
“Councilmanic Liability: Highlights of the Law,” OHIO CITIES AND VILLAGES, July 1986 (co-author)
ANTITRUST CONSENT DECREE MANUAL, American Bar Association (1980) (contributor)
Book Review, Trial Techniques with Irving Younger, Litigation News, July 1980
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