760 WJR and the Detroit Economic Club selected Butzel attorney and shareholder Mitchell Zajac to be a part of the Class of 2023 Rising Stars, which is comprised of 10 local leaders under the age of 40 who are making an impact in their industries and communities.
Zajac is a member of Butzel’s litigation and dispute resolution practice group in Detroit, one of the firm’s largest practices areas. He will focus on automotive, intellectual property, regulatory, and emissions compliance, and sports law. He is a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Zajac has practiced in six federal courts, the U.S. Patent Office, the Court of International Trade, and the U.S. International Trade Commission. He has helped several clients manage and craft IP portfolios in other unique industries, such as medicine, light-weighting, and industrial manufacturing. He has experience in complex patent, trade secret, and commercial litigation cases.
In 2022, Zajac was appointed vice chair of Western Michigan University (WMU) Cooley Law School board of directors. He was named to the board in 2020. He was featured in DBusiness magazine’s 2022 Class of “30 in Their Thirties.” He also was featured in DBusiness magazine’s Top Lawyers of Metro Detroit, Intellectual Property and Patent Law, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Zajac attended WMU-Cooley after graduating from WMU with bachelor’s degrees in mechanical engineering and German and a master’s in mechanical engineering.
He was a Rhodes Scholar finalist, interned for Cong. Fred Upton, and was a four-year starter on the Division 1 football team at WMU. Zajac was featured in Michigan Lawyers Weekly’s 2020 Class of Up & Coming Lawyers. Moreover, he received the Detroit Bar Association’s “One to Watch” Award in 2019.
