Assistant Professor of Law
B.A. University of California, Berkeley
J.D. Georgetown University Law Center
Adam Zimmerman teaches Tort Law, Administrative Law, Mass Tort Law, Complex Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. Professor Zimmerman's teaching methods have been featured in the national news media, and in 2011, he was named "Best New Law Professor" by the Student Bar Association.
Professor Zimmerman’s scholarship explores the way class action attorneys, regulatory agencies and criminal prosecutors provide justice to large groups of victims through overlapping systems of tort law, administrative law and criminal law. His recent articles have been accepted for publication in the Columbia Law Review, Duke Law Journal, New York University Law Review, and University of Pennsylvania Law Review. His most recent article, The Agency Class Action, was selected for the 2012 Stanford-Yale-Harvard Junior Faculty Forum and will appear in the Columbia Law Review.
Professor Zimmerman graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law, where he served as Associate Editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and co-founded the first student chapter of the American Constitutional Society in the country. After graduation, he clerked for Judge Jack B. Weinstein in the Eastern District of New York. He then served as counsel to Special Master Kenneth R. Feinberg in the design and administration of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Afterwards, he was associated with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where he represented clients in complex commercial litigation and mass tort cases, as well as domestic and international arbitration. As a practitioner, Professor Zimmerman has also worked on global class actions involving the tobacco industry, gun manufacturers, and Agent Orange.
Selected Publications
The Agency Class Action, 112 Colum. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2012) (w/ Michael Sant'Ambrogio) (ssrn link)
Distributing Justice, 86 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 500 (2011) (ssrn link)
The Criminal Class Action, 159 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1385 (2011) (w/ D. Jaros) (ssrn link)
Funding Irrationality, 59 Duke L. J. 1105 (2010) (ssrn link)
Selected Short Online Essays
The Convergence of Global Settlements (Feb. 2012)
The Privatized Attorney General (Jan. 2012)
The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund (Redux?) (Jan. 2012)
The Rise of Executive (Branch) Compensation (Jan. 2012)
Flash Mob Litigation (Jan. 2012)
Agencies Should Provide Enhanced Procedural Protections in Large Settlements, The University of Pennsylvania, RegBlog (July 2011)
An Essay on Funding Irrationality, The Legal Workshop Online Forum (Sept. 2010)