Anwar_Zaki

Zaki Anwar

Anwar_Zaki

Zaki Anwar

Counsel

Boston + 1 617 526 6284

Zaki Anwar represents clients in state and federal court at all stages of litigation, focusing on appellate advocacy, dispositive motions, and trial strategy. His practice spans complex commercial, government-facing, and intellectual property litigation, with particular depth in the technology sector, in antitrust and consumer protection, and in class actions, multidistrict litigation, and mass torts. He devotes substantial time to pro bono matters, with an emphasis on capital defense, voting rights, and gun violence prevention.

Mr. Anwar was previously an associate in the Issues & Appeals group at Jones Day in Boston and Columbus. He also served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, where he taught a course on state constitutional law, comparing state and federal approaches to individual rights and government structure and examining when state courts should construe their own constitutions more protectively than the federal Constitution. Ahead of the November 2020 election, he served as volunteer voting rights counsel for the Ohio Democratic Party, devising a litigation strategy to protect access to absentee and early voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Anwar clerked for the Honorable John G. Roberts, Jr., of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Honorable Sri Srinivasan of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and the Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 2017 and received the Fay Diploma, awarded annually to the graduate with the highest grade point average.

Mr. Anwar volunteers as a mentor for the Muslim Judicial Clerkships Network and for The Appellate Project, which seeks to create a racially diverse, equitable, and inclusive appellate community.

Experience

  • US and State Supreme Court Litigation

    • Second-chaired oral argument and drafted merits briefs before the US Supreme Court in Glossip v. Oklahoma, obtaining vacatur of Richard Glossip’s capital conviction based on the State’s knowing failure to correct false testimony
    • Second-chaired oral argument and drafted merits briefs before the US Supreme Court in Hamm v. Smith, preserving the judgment that Joseph Smith’s intellectual disability bars his execution under the Eighth Amendment
    • Advocated for a group of university professors before the Supreme Court of Georgia in a state constitutional law challenge to a Georgia law mandating that public universities allow firearms on campus
    • Prepared an amicus brief on behalf of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence defending the University of Michigan’s campus firearm restrictions against a challenge in the Michigan Supreme Court
    • Representing a multinational health insurer before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in its challenge to a Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act judgement arising from its sale of supplemental health insurance plans

  • Appellate Court Litigation

    • Argued a Seventh Circuit appeal from the denial of a habeas petition seeking vacatur of a felon-in-possession conviction
    • Drafted the Ninth Circuit appellee brief defending Twitter’s suspension of Donald Trump’s account for inciting violence, arguing the absence of state action and Twitter’s First Amendment editorial discretion
    • Served as court-appointed appellate counsel in the Sixth Circuit for a claimant challenging the Social Security Administration’s revocation of her benefits following mass fraud committed by attorney Eric Conn
    • Secured Second Circuit affirmance of the dismissal of an antitrust lawsuit challenging the Ivy League’s practice of not awarding athletic scholarships
    • Authored a Third Circuit appellee brief for a multinational energy company seeking to attach assets to satisfy an $8.5 billion ICSID arbitral award against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
    • Wrote an appellate brief in the Federal Circuit for a software company seeking $85 million in copyright damages from the US Navy for unauthorized use of its 3D rendering program
    • Represented a global educational testing and assessment organization before the Second Circuit in Telephone Consumer Protection Act litigation involving the alleged use of unsolicited fax advertisements

  • Trial Court Litigation

    • Defending the University of Pennsylvania in an antitrust class action challenging the university’s participation in the 568 Presidents Group, a former consortium of universities and colleges practicing need-blind admissions
    • Preparing dispositive motions and interlocutory appeal briefs for a truck engine manufacturer in a nationwide consumer fraud class action and state attorney general litigation alleging that the company altered engine emissions controls
    • Developed the legal defense of a Pennsylvania mail-in ballot notice-and-cure procedure for the Democratic National Committee
    • Authored dispositive motions defending Anthropic in copyright litigation over the use of song lyrics in AI training data
    • Wrote the motion to dismiss for Google in the State of Ohio’s suit seeking to regulate Google as a common carrier and public utility
    • Composed post-trial motions for Intel in a long-running patent dispute with VLSI involving semiconductor technology
    • Devised trial strategy and drafted dispositive motions for a national clinical laboratory network accused of violating the False Claims Act by providing courtesy blood draws to healthcare providers
    • Formulated trial strategy and drafted dispositive motions for a global pharmacy retailer facing multibillion-dollar opioid-related lawsuits brought by state and local governments in multidistrict litigation
    • Briefed motions to dismiss in False Claims Act actions brought against a national home health services provider accused of improperly recruiting patients and providing medically unnecessary treatment
    • Drafted dispositive motions for a chemical manufacturer in public nuisance cases brought by consumers and local governments alleging harmful PFAS exposure

Recognition

  • Selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for appellate practice (2025–2027). 

Insights & News

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Credentials

  • Education

    • JD, Harvard Law School, 2017

      summa cum laude

      Fay Diploma recipient

      Harvard Law Review

    • BA, Economics and Political Science, Columbia University, 2011

      magna cum laude

  • Admissions

    • Massachusetts

    • New York

    • Ohio

    • US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

    • US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

    • US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

    • US Supreme Court

  • Clerkships

    • The Hon. John G. Roberts, Jr., US Supreme Court, 2019 - 2020

    • The Hon. Sri Srinivasan, US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, 2018 - 2019

    • The Hon. Jeffrey S. Sutton, US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, 2017 - 2018

Credentials

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