Butzel Attorney Mitchell Zajac Elected Chair, Cooley Law School Board of Directors
DETROIT, Mich. – Butzel attorney and shareholder Mitchell ("Mitch") Zajac was elected chair of the Cooley Law School Board of Directors. He joined Cooley’s Board of Directors in 2020 and was elected vice-chair in 2022.
Zajac is a member of Butzel’s Litigation and Dispute Resolution Practice Group, one of the firm’s largest practice areas. His practice also includes a focus on automotive, intellectual property, regulatory and emissions compliance, and sports law, to name a few. He is a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
He has practiced in six federal courts, the U.S. Patent Office, the Court of International Trade, and the U.S. International Trade Commission. Zajac has helped several clients manage and craft IP portfolios in other unique industries, like medicine, light-weighting, and industrial manufacturing. He also has experience in complex patent, trade secret and commercial litigation cases.
Notably, Zajac was included in DBusiness magazine’s 2022 Class of “30 in Their Thirties.” He also was named to DBusiness magazine’s Top Lawyers of Metro Detroit, Intellectual Property and Patent Law, 2021, 2022 and 2023, Patent Litigation, 2023. He was named by 760 WJR and the Detroit Economic Club to the Class of 2023 Rising Stars, comprised of 10 local leaders under the age of 40 who are making an impact in their industries and communities.
He attended Cooley Law School (J.D., 2017) after graduating from Western Michigan University (WMU) with Bachelors’ degrees in Mechanical Engineering and German (2012) and a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering (2013).
Zajac was a Rhodes Scholar finalist (2012); interned for Congressman Fred Upton; and was a four-year starter on the Division 1 football team at WMU. Zajac was named to Michigan Lawyers Weekly’s 2020 Class of Up & Coming Lawyers. He also received the Detroit Bar Association’s “One to Watch” Award in 2019. Zajac has been named to Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, Commercial Litigation, 2022, 2023 and 2024.
