Butzel Attorney Mitchell Zajac Named to Crain’s Detroit Business’ 2025 Class of ‘40 Under 40’
DETROIT, Mich. – Butzel attorney and shareholder Mitchell ("Mitch") Zajac has been named to the Crain’s Detroit Business 2025 Class of “40 Under 40.” For more than three decades, Crain’s Detroit Business has highlighted CEOs, founders, innovators, community champions and others younger than 40 who are making significant impacts. Honorees will be recognized on Thursday, November 20, 2025 at The Department at Hudson’s.
Zajac’s extensive legal practice includes a focus on automotive, intellectual property, regulatory and emissions compliance, to name a few. He has substantial experience in commercial litigation, transactional matters, counseling, and negotiating successful resolutions in a variety of sectors, for large corporations and entities of all sizes.
His experience is comprised of commercial automotive advising, including supply chain disputes for light-duty, commercial vehicle, after-market, and remanufacturing suppliers; non-disclosure, joint-development, and public-private-partnership agreements in a variety of industries, including automotive, defense, and construction; product warranty and cost-recovery; product safety and compliance; emissions certification and compliance; international trade and customs, including United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) matters, Section 301 China tariffs, and Section 232 steel and aluminum, and IEEPA tariffs; and e-discovery.
Moreover, Zajac is a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He counsels and represents clients in intellectual property (IP) matters such as complex trade secret, copyright, and patent litigation. His experience encompasses IP administrative proceedings, including patent inter partes review (IPR) proceedings, patent prosecution in the USPTO, and advising on patent portfolio development and management.
Before joining Butzel, Zajac was an engineer at a Detroit Three automaker. In this role, he was an advocate for progress and change in a variety of functions, including powertrain and engine systems design and development; design and development engineering, including customer sourcing, quality, and design; international program, supply chain, and manufacturing management, including responsibility for vehicle chief engineering, product planning and branding, two global manufacturing facilities, supply chain management and customs. He worked directly with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), California Air Resources Board (CARB), and US Department of Justice (DOJ) with a focus on emissions.
Zajac is Chair of Cooley Law School’s Board of Directors. He joined Cooley’s Board of Directors in 2020 and was elected Vice-Chair in 2022. He also is a member of the WMU Alumni Association Board of Directors, and a member of the WMU Lee Honors College Dean’s Advisory Board. Additionally, Zajac is a member of the Michigan Chapter of the American Inns of Court and the Detroit Bar Association.
His honors include The Best Lawyers in America® – Ones to Watch, Commercial Litigation, 2023, 2024; Michigan Super Lawyers 2025 Rising Stars – Intellectual Property; Michigan Super Lawyers – Rising Stars, Intellectual Property, 2024-2025; 760 WJR/Detroit Economic Club – Rising Stars, 2023; DBusiness – Top Lawyers in Metro Detroit, Intellectual Property and Patent Law, 2021, 2023; Litigation – Patents, 2023; DBusiness – 30 in Their Thirties, 2022; Michigan Lawyers Weekly – Up & Coming Lawyers, 2020 and, Detroit Bar Association – One to Watch, 2019.
