ZELLNER PROFILE

Kathleen Zellner

The law firm of Kathleen T. Zellner & Associates, P.C. was founded in January of 1991. During the last sixteen years the law firm has handled a variety of cases at the trial, appellate and post-conviction levels. The law firm has an AV rating, which recognizes the achievement of the highest legal and ethical standards. In addition to winning a series of multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements in civil cases the firm has also had a number of Illinois’ leading criminal cases.

Over the last sixteen years the firm has provided invaluable pro bono series to inmates in Illinois and other states. The pro bono services have ranged from murder trials to DNA testing. A number of exonerated clients are represented by the firm in civil rights cases. The firm has handled over 150 criminal appeals and a number of civil appeals.

Kathleen T. Zellner
The founder of the law firm has won numerous awards for her legal work. Among her most significant accomplishments, Ms. Zellner was selected by the National Law Journal as one of the top ten litigators in the United States in 2000. Only 158 attorneys in the United States have won this award since 1980. In 2007, she was selected by Lawdragons as one of the 500 leading plaintiff’s attorneys in the United States. Leading Lawyers selected Kathleen Zellner as one of the top 100 lawyers in Illinois in all areas of law. She was also selected as one of the top 10 women lawyers in Illinois in 2007. She has been consistently recognized as a Super Lawyer and Leading Lawyer in Illinois in the areas of professional negligence, medical malpractice, criminal defense and criminal appeals. She has been listed as one of the top 50 Female Super Lawyers in Illinois from 2005- 2007. In 2008 Zellner was named as one of the top 100 lawyers in Illinois by the American Academy of Trial Lawyers

On December 20, 2007 Kathleen Zellner won a $15,500,000.00 civil rights verdict on behalf of her clients Kevin and Melissa Fox. Fox was incarcerated for 8 months for the murder and sexual assault of his 3 year old daughter Riley. Zellner represented Fox in his criminal trial and discovered the DNA that led to his release. Zellner tried the case with her law partner Douglas H. Johnson and her daughter Anne E. Zellner. This was Anne Zellner's first trial. The verdict appears to be the largest one of its kind in the United States and Illinois.

Doug Johnson and Kathleen Zellner

In 2002, Ms. Zellner was recognized as the Pro Bono Attorney of the year by the National Law Journal. She won similar awards from the Illinois and DuPage Bar Associations. Her concept of doing pro bono DNA work to gather evidence for civil rights cases has been recognized and written about in various publications.

Her unique ability to discover and gather evidence has resulted in a number of significant legal victories. Some of her most well-known cases are as follows:

1. Kevin Fox: Winning this civil rights case resulted in obtaining the highest verdict of its kind in the United States. Recognizing that a state laboratory finding of “inconclusive saliva” meant that there was a possibility there was DNA to be tested. She persuaded the State’s Attorney to allow a private lab to test the samples which excluded Kevin Fox with 100% certainty. She also successfully filed a civil rights case six weeks after Kevin Fox’s incarceration, and before the DNA exoneration, that survived all motions to dismiss.

2. Larry Eyler: Obtaining twenty-one confessions from Larry Eyler that allowed law enforcement to close all twenty-one murder cases in three states. A movie is being made by a major Hollywood producer on Zellner’s work in this case.

3. Joseph Burrows: Obtaining the release of Joseph Burrows after six and a half years on Death Row and within months of his execution. Zellner persuaded the real murderer to confess during her courtroom testimony. This case is one of the leading Illinois cases on post-conviction confessions.

4. Ronnie Bullock, Billy Wardell: Obtaining the release of these men after they served a combined total of twenty-five years in prisons.

5. Davon Jackson: Winning this Louisiana murder case by convincing the jury that the real murderer was the prosecution’s star witness.

6. Beanie Baby Bandit: Winning a directed verdict for her 79 year old client and arranging to have the alleged proceeds of the robbery donated to charity.

"Kathleen Zellner has distinguished herself in the practice of criminal law by obtaining the exoneration of 10 men wrongfully convicted and /or incarcerated in Illinois."

7. Dan Young, Jr. and Harold Hill: Using experts to discover new bite mark evidence and DNA that exonerated both men after a combined total of twenty-seven (27) years of incarceration.

8. Martino v. Illinois Masonic: This remains the highest suicide verdict in the United States.

9. Green v. Plymouth Court Partners: A record verdict in a sexual assault case in the Chicago Bar Association building. Zellner had the rapist testify as to the lack of security in the building.

10. Williams v. Dr. Patel: A record verdict for an inmate’s civil rights case.

11. Toney v. Cook County Hospital: This medical malpractice case was a record verdict in Illinois. This case was the first Cook County case where the jury was allowed to compare videos of the injured three year old to a normal three year old.

12. Lyons v. Cook County Hospital: This wrong medication case was a record verdict in Illinois.

13. Roscetti Four: Successfully obtaining DNA and hair testing after clients lost their pro se motion for such testing. Zellner also located the DNA evidence after clients were informed by a national organization that the forensic evidence had been destroyed. Additionally, Zellner used DNA analysis of crime laboratory work on numerous other cases to show that the same scientist had committed “scientific fraud” in their case. Zellner discovered the FBI profile that was generated before the confessions and used as a blueprint for the two false confessions. Next, Zellner persuaded all of the key witnesses to recant their previous testimony. Also, Zellner got the support of the local and national media to have the case re-examined. Finally, Zellner was able to use all of this new evidence as the basis for the civil rights case.

Zellner’s cases have been profiled in the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Chicago Sun Times, ABA Journal, Legal Times, Chicago Reader, Boston Herald, Orlando Sentinel and dozens of other publications. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, the Today Show, 60 Minutes, A&E, 20/20, Dateline and Day One. She has been interviewed by German and Brazilian television programs.

Additionally, Zellner has given speeches to law schools, businesses, civil organizations, hospitals, high schools and writers groups. She has been a presenter for the Illinois State Bar Association as well as the DuPage County Bar Association.