Richard F. Ziegler is Managing Partner of Jenner & Block LLP's New York office. He focuses his practice on complex civil litigation, international arbitration and corporate governance matters, including contract and financial disputes and corporate compliance issues. Mr. Ziegler co-chairs the Firm's International Arbitration Practice, formerly co-chaired the Complex Commercial Litigation Practice, and serves on the Firm's Management Committee.
The Chambers USA guide describes Mr. Ziegler as "an extraordinarily gifted advocate." In 2010 he was listed by BTI Consulting as one of its "Client Service All Stars," an unsolicited award based on client feedback on lawyering talent and business acumen.
Mr. Ziegler joined Jenner & Block from the 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he served from 2003 - 2007 as Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs and General Counsel and led a department of more than 150 lawyers in 24 countries. Before joining 3M, Mr. Ziegler was a partner at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York for more than two decades, serving as coordinator of its New York litigation practice and a member of its worldwide Executive Committee. He previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York and as Deputy Chief Appellate Attorney in that office.
Drawing on his experience as in-house and external counsel, Mr. Ziegler is a frequent author and speaker on compliance and governance matters, including on enterprise risk management, the role of the board of directors in corporate compliance programs and on FCPA compliance processes. He Co-Chaired PLI's Corporate Compliance and Ethics Institute in New York in 2010, and Co-Chaired PLI's Corporate Counsel Institutes in both 2007 and 2008. His article "New Obstacles in Setting the Tone at the Top" was published in Corporate Secretary and the Bloomberg Corporate Law Journal, and as a monograph by the Center for Ethical Business Cultures.
Mr. Ziegler was Chairman of the Committee on Professional Ethics of the New York State Bar Association in 1995-98. He taught a seminar on ethics and complex litigation for three semesters at Columbia Law School.
Mr. Ziegler graduated from Yale College summa cum laude in 1971, where he became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School magna cum laude in 1975 and was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. Mr. Ziegler clerked for Federal District Court Judge Milton Pollack in Manhattan.