BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Mark Zimmett was educated at The Johns Hopkins University and The New York University School
of Law.

Early Trials
Zimmett joined the New York law firm of Shearman & Sterling in 1975 after graduation from law school. He litigated scores of cases for Shearman & Sterling’s largest client Citibank, trying more cases than most attorneys with twice his years of experience. At 28 years old, he was entrusted as the principal associate with the litigation of billions of dollars of claims that led to the freeing of American hostages held in Iran.

Marquee Cases and Teaching
After being elected a partner of Shearman & Sterling in 1983, Zimmett continued to handle marquee cases for Citibank and other major clients, such as the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano (the Vatican bank scandal), the Hunt Brothers’ reorganizations, the world-wide shipping workouts and General Anastasio Somoza. He also taught international law at The New York University School of Law.

His Own Firm
As the decade progressed, Shearman & Sterling grew exponentially, reorganizing its practice groups, including the several small teams of litigators who were merged into a much larger single department. The increased size did not suit Zimmett. Neither did the new emphasis then prevalent at many large firms on each partner specializing in a single type of litigation, nor the trend away from trying cases to managing projects. But, as Zimmett puts it, “my name wasn’t ‘Shearman’ or ‘Sterling’ and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.”  Boldly, he set out to form his own law firm in 1990.