Computer crime law pioneer Patrick Zeller

In the 13 years since he graduated from the John Marshall Law School in 1996, Patrick Zeller has used his knowledge of law and computers to develop a specialty law practice as both a computer crimes prosecutor and an eDiscovery lawyer that has him bridging the gap between technology and the law.

Zeller, a 1990 IVCC graduate and 1992 University of Illinois graduate, worked first for the Illinois Attorney General’s Office where he had interned during law school. Zeller co-founded the office’s High Tech Crimes Bureau and served as director of the Computer Crimes Institute.

“I helped train prosecutors and investigators throughout the state in how best to investigate and prosecute all types of computer-related crimes.”

Zeller later went to work for the law firm Seyfarth Shaw where he co-chaired the National Electronic Discovery Practice Group, specializing in search, collection, analysis and processing of electronic data related to civil litigation.

Today he is vice president and deputy general counsel for Guidance software, Inc., a company that developed Enterprise investigative software that’s used by law enforcement agencies around the world in investigating computer-related crimes as well as hundreds of corporate customers searching for and collecting data for civil litigation.

“My experience has covered the full spectrum as a state and federal prosecutor with the Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice and as a civil litigator with Seyfarth Shaw LLP, specializing in issues related to eDiscovery,” he said.

“As a prosecutor, my cases included everything that we used to call ‘traditional’ computer crimes — I.D. theft, trademark infringement, software piracy, chip re-clocking, all the way through arson, murder, gang activity, and economic espionage. All have evidence or things contained on computers that relate to the prosecution,” he explained.

“I've found it a fascinating practice area. My experience as a prosecutor was a natural transition into my civil practice specializing in litigating trade secrets, non-competes, class-actions, and eDiscovery.”

Today Zeller is an adjunct professor at John Marshall teaching the eDiscovery, Digital Evidence, and Computer Forensics class.

The son of Frank and Fran Zeller of Peru is married to the former Sheila Collins. The couple resides in Hawthorn Woods with son John Patrick.

Information and quotations for this story were taken from the John Marshall Law School web site: jmls.edu.