Vedder Price

Zachary J. Watters

Associate

Zachary J. Watters is an Associate in the Chicago office of Vedder Price and a member of the firm’s Litigation practice area.

Mr. Watters focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation and has significant experience counseling and representing a broad array of clients in matters concerning professional negligence, contract disputes, commercial torts, intellectual property, and product liability. Additionally, Mr. Watters also has extensive experience defending class actions – having achieved dismissals or cost-effective resolutions in dozens of punitive class actions. He also has significant jury and bench trial experience as well as appellate experience in multiple state and federal appellate courts.

With the increasing availability and widespread use of video-conferencing technology, Mr. Watters has gained significant experience with all aspects of remote depositions including taking and defending testimony in this manner.
This experience has allowed him to efficiently and effectively counsel and prepare clients for such proceedings and make his clients aware of the significant distinctions between remote and in-person depositions.

Mr. Watters has spoken about or authored articles on, class action defense, the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, the Mandatory Initial Discovery Pilot Project in the Northern District of Illinois, amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and discovery of electronic data.

Mr. Watters was selected for inclusion as an “Illinois Rising Star” by Super Lawyers from 2014 to 2021.

Zachary J. Watters

Associate

Education

  • Loyola University Chicago School of Law, J.D., 2010,

    cum laude

  • University of Wisconsin, B.A., 2006

Zachary J. Watters

Associate

Bar Admissions

  • Illinois, 2013

Court Admissions

  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, 2013
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin, 2012
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin, 2012
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, 2012

Affiliations

  • Member, American Bar Association
  • Member, State Bar of Wisconsin,
  • Member, Milwaukee Bar Association
  • Member, State Bar of Illinois

Zachary J. Watters

Associate

Experience

Mr. Watters's noteworthy representations include:

  • Securing a trademark infringement trial victory for a financial services client, including an injunction ordering the competing financial services firm to select a new name.
  • Representing a financial institution in appealing consumer fraud allegations under the Illinois Credit Agreement Act. Mr. Watters’s team argued that the plaintiff’s complaint alleging consumer fraud and breach of fiduciary duty by a commercial loan borrower violated the Illinois Credit Agreement Act. The First District Appellate Court of Illinois affirmed the judgement for his client.
  • Establishing legal precedent as a team member working on one of the first appeals defining the scope of governmental immunity under Wisconsin law.
  • Obtaining a favorable judgment in a breach of warranty/ defective product bench trial for his concrete manufacturer client.