About Us
 

Zeldes, Needle & Cooper
1000 Lafayette Boulevard
P.O. Box 1740
Bridgeport, CT 06601-1740

Phone: (203) 333-9441
Fax: (203) 333-1489
Email: info@znclaw.com

 

Zeldes, Needle & Cooper represents businesses and individuals in litigation and transactions throughout Connecticut. We trace our origins to 1971, when seven lawyers, all Yale or Harvard Law School graduates, broke away from a larger firm and set up shop on card tables in an office with three secretaries and one telephone. Today, our 20 lawyers, 5 paralegals and 25 supporting staff remain committed to our founding ideals of helping all of our clients address their problems in an assertive but ethical manner.

The efforts and accomplishments of our founders earned the firm a reputation for creativity and tenacity, and we continue to practice in that style. We welcome the most challenging legal problems, and we are not intimidated by larger adversaries. At the same time, every client is important to us. We believe that we succeed in our goal of providing large firm capabilities and small firm responsiveness.

We provide transactional and litigation counsel to clients ranging from individual entrepreneurs to publicly-traded companies. We routinely assist out-of-state companies in their legal matters with major corporations headquartered in Connecticut. Our attorneys have exceptionally strong academic credentials, and a number of us have federal and state judicial clerkship experience. We are proud to say that we frequently partner with some of the nation's largest and best known firms as co-counsel.

The following examples highlight the types of matters we have handled and some of the accomplishments of which we are most proud:

  • on behalf of a physicians group, we invoked antitrust laws in a successful challenge to a hospital’s requirement that only hospital-employed neonatologists could provide intensive care services to critically-ill newborns;

  • we acted as counsel to the Connecticut General Assembly in proceedings to consider the impeachment of a sitting Probate Judge;

  • we obtained a $5 million dollar punitive damage award in a Connecticut arbitration; the award was enforced against the defendant after briefing on a certiorari petition resulted in denial of certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court. 

  • we represent developers of residential and commercial real estate in all aspects of their operations, from property acquisition through zoning and construction to ultimate sales and leases;

  • we successfully defended a local manufacturer against claims of trade secret misappropriation and unfair trade practices involving emerging technologies; 

  • we won a federal jury verdict on behalf of a municipality charged with federal civil rights violations in a highly publicized murder case;

  • we serve as general counsel to closely-held business entities in various industries;

  • on behalf of a high-technology company, we obtained dismissal of an action brought by the State Attorney General claiming violations of the WARN Act;

  • we represented a group of medical providers in the formation and implementation of an individual practice association (IPA), involving the acquisition of private medical practices, the negotiation of contractual relationships with insurers, and the avoidance of antitrust issues;

  • we have represented a multinational pharmaceutical company (headquartered out of state) in employment discrimination, ERISA, wrongful discharge, premises liability, and product liability matters in Connecticut federal and state courts;

  • we represented a publicly-traded company in complex patent litigation against a European competitor, which resulted in an advantageous negotiated resolution;

  • we obtained substantial damages on behalf of a French company in an arbitration against a US publicly traded company concerning distribution rights to an ophthalmic laser;

  • we have represented a Swedish corporation in multi-million dollar acquisitions of complementary business entities;

  • we successfully defended a national franchisor in multiple, coordinated arbitrations brought by a number of Connecticut franchisees who challenged the franchisor’s compliance with state and federal law;

  • we serve as counsel to European distributors of medical devices in their contractual dealings with United States manufacturers;

  • we prevailed in an arbitration on behalf of a Fortune 500 company defending against an overseas distributor’s claim for damages arising out of its termination;

  • we prevailed in one of the first cases in which a federal court enjoined discriminatory enforcement of municipal zoning regulations against persons with HIV.

We take pride in the fact that we are cost conscious and staff matters leanly. We value open, honest communication with our clients about the status and progress of matters we are handling, about our bills, and about our performance. We are open to billing arrangements that are not based solely on time expended.

As clients’ needs require, we assemble teams of lawyers and support staff that cross departmental and practice group boundaries. In every case, we strive to provide services of the highest quality at reasonable cost.