George Zelcs

George Zelcs focuses his practice in the areas of complex commercial litigation including antitrust, consumer fraud, pharmaceutical, qui tam/whistleblower, and securities litigation in state and federal courts.  Mr. Zelcs completed his undergraduate education at Indiana University (B.A. Political Science, Urban Planning, and Sociology) in 1976.  He received his law degree at Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1979, and was admitted to practice law in Illinois in 1979.  He is also admitted to practice in the District of Columbia (2010), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (2012), Fourth Circuit (2015), Fifth Circuit (1999), Seventh Circuit (1980), Eighth Circuit (1996), Ninth Circuit (2013), Tenth Circuit (1982), and Eleventh Circuit (1993); the United States Tax Court (1984), the United States Court of Federal Claims (2013), the Supreme Court of the United States (2005), the United States District Courts for the Northern (1979) and Southern District (2004) of Illinois, and the United States District Courts for the District of Colorado (2023).

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Mr. Zelcs is a member of the American Bar Association, the American Association for Justice, the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association and The Bar Association for the District of Columbia.  Throughout his years of practice, he has concentrated on complex commercial litigation. Mr. Zelcs was first selected as a Leading Illinois Attorney in 1993 and also as an Illinois Super Lawyer.  He was selected as a Finalist for the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award in 2003 for his work on the Price vs. Philip Morris USA class action case and in 2013 for the City of Greenville vs. Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc. cases.  He serves on the Chicago-Kent College of Law Board of Advisors, The Institute of the Supreme Court of the United States Advisory Board, as a Charter Trustee of Illinois College and as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

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Mr. Zelcs has conducted numerous jury trials in state and federal courts throughout the United States and has participated in arbitration proceedings in foreign venues. He has obtained settlements or judgments ranging from fifteen million to in excess of ten billion dollars for his clients.

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He has frequently served as lead counsel in complex multi-party litigations.  Most recently, he represented the National Credit Union Administration in mortgage backed securities litigation against certain global investment banks resulting in excess of $5.2 billion in recoveries for the NCUA.  He also served as one of the plaintiffs’ lead counsel in ongoing foreign exchange antitrust and contract litigation that has resulted in excess of $2.2 billion dollars in settlements for class members.   He serves as co-lead counsel in Litovich v. Bank of America Corporation et al, an antitrust class action brought on behalf of odd lot corporate bond holders.  He also is a member of the consumer plaintiffs’ steering committee in In re: Google Play Store Antitrust Litigation, MDL 2981. He also serves as co-lead counsel for the proposed class of plaintiff publishers in In re Google Digital Publisher Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 20-cv-08984, an action brought on behalf of online publishers.

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Mr. Zelcs has testified, at the invitation of the New York State Assembly and its Standing Committee on Insurance, regarding financial guaranty insurance and representations and warranties made by mortgage originators in secured debt transactions. He recently spoke at the ABA’s Antitrust Section’s In-House Institute Conference on Antitrust and Consumer Protection on perspectives from the plaintiffs’ bar on recent developments.

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