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Kenneth H. Zimmerman is a Member of the Lowenstein Sandler Litigation Group and Chair of the Lowenstein Center for the Public Interest. A noted civil rights attorney, Mr. Zimmerman's practice focuses on the strategic direction and implementation of the firm's pro bono and public advocacy initiatives. He recently served as a member of the Presidential Transition Team preparing the new Administration's activities related to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and served a four-month stint as a Senior Advisor to Secretary Donovan following the inauguration. He also has an appointment as a Senior Non-Resident Fellow at the Brookings Institute's Metropolitan Policy Program and serves as Advisor to Harvard Law School's new Public Service Venture Fund, which provides seed money for start-up non-profit ventures and salary support to graduating law students pursuing post-graduate work at nonprofits or government agencies.
Prior to joining Lowenstein Sandler, Mr. Zimmerman served as Chief Counsel to New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine (2006-2008), where he and his staff were responsible for legislative matters, judicial and prosecutorial appointments, and the oversight of the state’s many independent commissions and authorities. During his tenure, the state undertook initiatives to reduce and reform property taxes, upgrade ethics requirements, combat crime, and reform the state's school funding system. Mr. Zimmerman was the founding Executive Director of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, a Newark-based urban advocacy and research organization. Under his leadership (1999-2006), the Institute initiated a model program to assist urban high school graduates enter the building trades, which resulted in a multi-million dollar commitment from the state to replicate the program; co-authored reports on predatory lending and driver's license suspension that led to legislative changes in New Jersey; litigated affordable housing and fair lending cases; and spearheaded nationally recognized efforts to reform the state's corrections and parole systems.
Mr. Zimmerman also served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Enforcement and Programs in the Office of Fair Housing in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C.; he was the third-ranking official in HUD's 600-person civil rights office and directed HUD's enforcement efforts under the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws. Earlier in his career, he worked at the U.S. Department of Justice as a senior trial attorney and trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division (Housing and Civil Enforcement Section), where he litigated affirmative civil rights cases nationwide that challenged discrimination in housing, lending and public accommodations.
Mr. Zimmerman has held various teaching and fellowship positions including Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow, Harvard Law School; Adjunct Professor, American University Washington College of Law; Instructor, United States Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute, and Ferguson Human Rights and Development Fellow in India. He also taught at Sherut La'am in Israel and at the Upward Bound Program in New Haven, Connecticut.
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Kenneth Zimmerman comments on Lowenstein Sandler's commitment to pro bono work and receipt of the New Jersey State Bar Association's 2010-2011 Pro Bono Award.,
Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, July 2011
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James Stewart comments on how including a photo of a phone booth-sized cage used to hold mentally ill inmates in California with the amicus brief he prepared with Kenneth Zimmerman, Catherine Weiss and Michael Long, helped influence the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Plata. The decision requires California prisons to eliminate unconstitutional conditions by reducing critical and dangerous overcrowding.,
New Jersey Law Journal, May 27, 2011
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Kenneth Zimmerman and Catherine Weiss comment on the rule changes concerning amici filings. The new rules will tighten deadlines, make citing unpublished cases easier and give trial judges a greater voice in deciding whether interlocutory appeals should be allowed.,
New Jersey Law Journal, August 2, 2010
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Harvard Law School
(J.D., 1988),
magna cum laude
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Yale University
(B.A., 1982),
magna cum laude
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U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, Chief Judge Robert F. Peckham, U.S.D.J.
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New Jersey
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District of Columbia
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U.S. Trust Territories
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California
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1996,
U.S. Supreme Court
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- Harvard Law School Public Service Venture Fund, Board Member
- La Casa de Don Pedro, Board Member
- New Jersey Charter School Association, Board Member
- New Jersy Community Capital, Chair of the Board
- Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, Board Member
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