Sarah Zielinski

Sarah A. Zielinski’s practice focuses on class action litigation, complex commercial litigation, and compliance counseling. Her substantive areas of concentration include the antitrust laws and consumer protection statutes such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Sarah’s antitrust litigation experience consists of representing companies and individuals in civil and criminal antitrust actions involving conspiracies, price fixing, market and customer allocation, bid rigging, indirect purchaser claims, monopolization, attempted monopolization, exclusive dealing, and unfair competition.

Sarah regularly counsels clients on a wide variety of antitrust issues, including competitor interactions, competitor collaborations, resale price maintenance, minimum advertised pricing, tying, group boycotts, benchmarking, competitive information exchanges, non-compete agreements, exclusive dealing, reciprocal dealing, below-cost pricing, discounting practices, price discrimination, unfair competition, and deceptive practices.

She has assisted companies with internal investigations and audits to assess compliance with the antitrust and corruption laws. She has helped companies implement compliance policies and launch training programs to reduce antitrust and corruption risk.

Sarah has given speeches and training presentations on antitrust compliance and recent developments under the antitrust laws. Beyond her antitrust experience, Sarah also has extensive class action litigation experience, with an emphasis on defending consumer class action cases.

She has significant experience defending class action and individual cases arising under the TCPA. She has successfully obtained voluntary and involuntary dismissals of TCPA cases, and has negotiated class action and individual settlements. Sarah also regularly counsels clients on how to ensure that their practices are TCPA-compliant.

Sarah has represented clients in a variety of complex commercial litigation matters, including cases involving securities law violations, products liability, commercial fraud, consumer fraud, tortious interference and other business torts, contract disputes, and lender liability.

In 2014, Sarah spent three months working in-house for a firm client. Sarah’s responsibilities included updating the client’s compliance policies and drafting new policies governing all aspects of the client’s business. She also provided counseling on antitrust, corruption, and other trade matters.

Sarah is actively involved in the American Bar Association. In 2014, Sarah became a Vice-Chair of the Pricing Conduct Committee of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association. Prior to that, she spent three years as the Young Lawyer Representative for the Public Education and Oral History Committee.

Sarah also is involved in the Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law Firms. During 2014-2015, she was a Co-Chair of the Associates Committee of the Coalition.

EXPERIENCE :

• Defense of a domestic ocean shipping company in civil and criminal antitrust cases alleging price fixing and bid rigging.
• Defense of an executive in criminal antitrust case alleging price fixing of automotive parts.
• Representation of a hospital alleging exclusive dealing, monopolization, and attempted monopolization claims against a competing hospital.
• Defense of a market research company in case alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
• Defense of a provider of tax and accounting software in case alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
• Defense of a satellite television provider in litigation seeking to prevent claims arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act from proceeding on a class basis in arbitration.

Education :

• Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, JD, Order of the Coif, Notes and Comments Editor, Law Review, 2007
• Miami University, BA, English Literature, magna cum laude, 2004
• Miami University, BS, Business Administration, cum laude, 2004

Admissions :

• Illinois
• U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
• U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Affiliations :

• Co-Chair, Section of Antitrust Law, Pricing Conduct Committee, American Bar Association, 2017, 2018
• Vice-Chair, Section of Antitrust Law, Pricing Conduct Committee, American Bar Association, 2014-2016
• Co-Chair, Coalition of Women’s Initiatives in Law Firms, Associates Committee, 2014-2015
• Young Lawyer Representative, Section of Antitrust Law, Public Education and Oral History Committee, American Bar Association, 2011-2014
• Member, Illinois State Bar Association.