Joanne Zimolzak is a solution-oriented litigator who works hard to deliver results for her clients.  With over 20 years of experience handling all aspects of complex business and regulatory litigation, Joanne knows that understanding the client’s business and risk tolerance is just as important as understanding the law. She is also skilled at identifying and highlighting issues before the client even knows there’s a problem. This can be particularly important for clients in the highly-regulated industries in which she has focused her practice, including insurance, government contracts, and healthcare.

One focus of Joanne’s practice is representing liability insurers in coverage disputes, including matters involving alleged professional negligence, bad faith allegations, and significant potential exposures. As monitoring counsel, Joanne assists in developing strategies to efficiently resolve claims and in preparing persuasive, high-quality pleadings and motions. Joanne also advises insurers on coverage and risk management issues, emerging liability risks, and regulatory compliance. A former chair of the ABA’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee, Joanne's expertise in this area is recognized by both clients and peers.

Joanne’s practice also extends to complex commercial and administrative litigation, with particular emphasis on contract disputes, business torts, and regulatory compliance. She has handled a wide range of complex civil litigation matters before state and federal courts throughout the country, both at the trial and appellate levels, in areas ranging from straight breach of contract claims, to misappropriation of trade secrets, to applying the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act to shield a client’s account from efforts to enforce an arbitral award.

Additionally, Joanne has significant experience assisting government contractors with compliance issues and handling government contracts-related litigation, including contract claims and disputes, procurement fraud matters, and reverse-FOIA defense. She spent the first several years of her career working out of a converted WWII bunker in the Midwest, where she helped build the strategy needed to defend a client against allegations of fraud and overbilling, and she’s since helped numerous clients navigate internal investigations, fraud claims, and day-to-day government contract claims and disputes. 

A client once told Joanne that she seemed “too nice” to be an attorney, but Joanne has built a career proving that the two are not mutually exclusive. She fights hard for her clients but firmly believes that getting along with opposing counsel (and others) is almost always the best way to go. She cares about her clients as well as her community, where she mentors many young lawyers and is active in pro bono matters.