Biography
Zack has argued 12 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, briefed many other Supreme Court cases, filed more than 100 briefs at the certiorari stage, and presented argument before numerous other federal and state appellate courts. He joined Weil from the U.S. Department of Justice, where he served for five years as an Assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General. In that role, he represented the United States in litigation in the Supreme Court, and assisted in coordinating the government’s appellate strategy in lower courts nationwide. Zack previously served as Special Counsel to the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense and Attorney Adviser at the U.S. Department of State.
Notable engagements include:
- Secured a unanimous win in the Supreme Court in Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, which held that the fraud exception to discharge under the Bankruptcy Code applies to a debtor’s liability for the actual fraud of a business partner, when the debtor did not personally perpetrate the fraud but is vicariously liable for it under state law.
- Representing a tech company in several appeals regarding the scope and interpretation of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
- Representing Zion Williamson in a dispute between the 2019 NBA #1 draft pick and his former agent, who has asserted claims of more than $100M in damages. Zack helped Williamson obtain a complete win at the trial level, with a federal district court holding that the contract between Williamson and his former agent was illegal and void under the Uniform Athlete Agents Act.
- Representing Ethicon, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary, in an important Federal Circuit appeal regarding the scope and validity of a series of patents on surgical staplers.
- Representing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as amicus curiae in a series of cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, including BP v. Baltimore, Morgan v. Sundance, and Badegerow v. Walters.
- Represented Ross Stores in a significant victory in the Fifth Circuit in a real estate dispute involving a seller’s refusal to comply with its contractual obligations to provide easements necessary for Ross to construct and open a distribution center in Texas.
- Represented Bridgestone in a significant victory in the Sixth Circuit regarding the scope and preclusive effect of a prior settlement with a nationwide class action of indirect purchasers.
- Represented Westinghouse Electric Company in a successful certified interlocutory appeal before the Third Circuit that addressed whether a bankruptcy court can discharge and bar administrative claims that arose after confirmation of a plan, but before the plan became effective.
- Represented Epiq Systems in a successful appeal in the New York courts, with the Appellate Division holding that a contractual limitation-of-liability provision applied to a case involving Epiq’s sale of its Chapter 7 software business to Axos Bank, sharply limiting Epiq’s maximum exposure.
- Represented Upsolve, Inc. in the Southern District of New York in obtaining a landmark win in a First Amendment challenge to protect Upsolve’s mission to train non-lawyers to provide limited legal advice to low-income New Yorkers who face debt collection actions.
- Representing several Rastafarian former inmates in appeals seeking to obtain money damages under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, when prison officials violated their religious rights by forcibly cutting their dreadlocks.
- Before joining Weil, Zack argued and won important Supreme Court cases on subjects including bankruptcy law (Mission Product Holdings v. Tempnology), patent law (Life Technologies Corp. v. Promega Corp. and WesternGeco v. ION Geophysical Corp.), insurance (Coventry Health Care of Missouri v. Nevils), and administrative exhaustion (Ross v. Blake).
Zack is recognized by Chambers USA as a leading lawyer nationally for Appellate Law, with commentators touting that he is “absolutely, positively, incredibly talented…he’s an appellate generalist who can do anything very well,” and calling him “a great appellate advocate and also very good at managing a case and keeping everything moving smoothly. If you have a complex brief or argument to run, he’s the guy to go for. You want him on your side.” He also is nationally recommended by Legal 500 for both Appellate: Courts of Appeal and Appellate: Supreme Courts, where clients note that he is “phenomenal,” “extremely quick-thinking,” and “knows the U.S. Supreme Court especially well.”
Zack received his B.A., cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a James Kent scholar and served as an Articles Editor of the Columbia Law Review. After graduating, Zack clerked for Judge Amalya Lyle Kearse of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court
Awards and Recognition, Speaking Engagements, Firm News & Announcements, Latest Thinking
Awards and Recognition
- Zack Tripp Named a Leading Lawyer Nationally for Appellate Law: Nationwide Award Brief — Chambers USA
- Zack Tripp Named a “Recommended” Lawyer Nationally for Appellate: Courts of Appeal Award Brief — Legal 500 US
Speaking Engagements
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NACD Generative AI for Directors: Key Uses and Risks, and the Legal Landscape
Speaker(s):
Olivia J. Greer and
Zack Tripp
December 11, 2023 — Weil’s Appeals and Strategic Counseling Co-head Zach Tripp and Technology & IP Transactions partner Olivia Greer participated in a members-only webinar with NACD discussing Generative AI.
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Supreme Court Review: Recent Decisions and Their Potential Implications for Bankruptcy Lawyers
Speaker(s):
Zack Tripp
December 2, 2023 — Scottsdale, AZ — Weil Appeals and Strategic Counseling Co-Head Zack Tripp participated in a panel entitled “Supreme Court Review: Recent Decisions and Their Potential Implications for Bankruptcy Lawyers,” as part of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s 2023 Winter Leadership Conference. Using cases decided from the Supreme Court’s last term, the panel discussed the Court’s general approach to deciding cases, including bankruptcy cases, and what those decisions mean for the bankruptcy and larger legal community.
Firm News & Announcements
- Weil Wins Fifth Circuit Affirmance of Ruling Finding Appeals Challenging Confirmation of Fieldwood Energy’s Chapter 11 Plan Are “Statutorily Moot” Litigation Win — February 23, 2024
- Weil Lawyers Named to 2022 Capital Pro Bono Honor Roll Firm Announcement — July 27, 2023
Latest Thinking
- Weil's SCOTUS Term in Review Publication — By Mark A. Perry, Zack Tripp, Greg Silbert, Josh Wesneski, Crystal Weeks and Shai Berman — PDF — July 13, 2023
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Supreme Court Condones All-PurposeJurisdiction Over Companies Registered to Do Business
Blog Post — Weil Governance & Securities Watch
— By
Drew Tulumello,
Josh Wesneski and
Zack Tripp
— June 28, 2023
Today, in Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., the Supreme Court held (5-4) that a State may require a company to consent to the all-purpose jurisdiction of its courts as a condition for registering to do business in that State. Writing for the majority, Justice Gorsuch observed that the Supreme Court has long held that […]
The post Supreme Court Condones All-PurposeJurisdiction Over Companies Registered to Do Business appeared first on Governance & Securities Watch.
... - Supreme Court Condones All-Purpose Jurisdiction Over Companies Registered to Do Business Alert — By Drew Tulumello, Zack Tripp and Josh Wesneski — June 27, 2023
- Litigation Trends 2023 Publication — By Weil’s Litigation Department — Spring 2023
- Supreme Court Resolves Split on U.S. Trustee Fees Blog Post — Weil Restructuring — By Garrett Fail, Candace M. Arthur, Zack Tripp and Alex Paul Cohen — June 07, 2022