Sheldon T. Zenner

Sheldon T. Zenner is National Head of Katten's Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice, a member of the firm's Board of Directors and Co-Head of the White Collar Defense, Internal Investigations and Compliance Practice.

Mr. Zenner is an accomplished trial lawyer who concentrates his practice in white collar and civil litigation and is involved in a wide variety of antitrust, securities, health care, customs, FCPA, education, fraud and tax matters. He also counsels boards of directors and individuals on compliance and corporate governance issues and, over his 33 year career, has represented countless companies and executives in both internal and external criminal and civil investigations and ancillary lawsuits. Mr. Zenner has extensive experience negotiating on behalf of companies and executives with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Attorney’s offices throughout the country and various Offices of the Inspector General and state attorneys general. In July 2005, he was commissioned to participate in the Seventh Circuit American Jury Project composed of judges and practitioners established by the Seventh Circuit Bar Association to test civil trial concepts adopted by the ABA. In 2003, he served on Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan's Corporate Corruption Transition Working Group.

In addition, Mr. Zenner has served as an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University School of Law and Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, having taught courses in clinical trial practice, the legal system and law and ethics of journalism. He has lectured at the Corporate Counsel Institute, the ABA's Annual National Institute on Securities Fraud, and has served as a faculty member for Northwestern University's Short Course for Prosecutors and Defense Counsel. He was co-chair of the Legal Assistance Foundation's Campaign for Justice, and was named the winner of LAF's 2010 Champion for Justice Award.

Mr. Zenner graduated from Northwestern University in 1974 with Honors and Distinction in Political Science. He thereafter earned his law degree, cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law in 1978, where he was on the staff of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.

Upon graduating from law school, Mr. Zenner clerked for Judge Marvin E. Aspen in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. After his clerkship, Mr. Zenner joined the United States Attorney’s Office in Chicago as an Assistant United States Attorney where he held various senior supervisory positions. In that capacity, Mr. Zenner was actively involved in numerous complex federal trials involving sophisticated financial transactions, RICO, securities fraud, political corruption, health care and tax issues. After seven and a half years, Mr. Zenner left the U.S. Attorney’s Office as the Deputy Chief, Special Prosecutions Division to join the firm.

Mr. Zenner has regularly been included among The Best Lawyers in America (1995–2012) and in the annual listing of Leading Business Lawyers in Illinois. He was named one of the top business crime defense lawyers in the country as part of the international Who's Who Legal, The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers, recognized in Benchmark: America's Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys (2008–2011) published by Legal Media Group; and is listed in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (2007–2011) as a leader in his field and Illinois Super Lawyers (2005–2012). In addition, the firm’s White Collar Criminal and Civil Litigation Practice is ranked among the nation’s best by Chambers USA. His trials and investigative skills both as a prosecutor and as a defense lawyer have been chronicled in seven books and two films as well as in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Financial Times, USA Today and the Chicago Tribune among others. Mr. Zenner also has appeared on numerous television and radio programs as an expert on trial practice.