Zach Barger

Senior Associate
Chicago
Zach Barger

Zach Barger is a senior associate with our firm, focusing his practice both on litigation and transactions within the shipping & marine, commercial, and logistics & transport sectors.

Prior to joining ZFZ, Zach served as in-house counsel for Marathon Petroleum Corporation, the United States’ largest oil refiner and Fortune 25 company, primarily providing legal support and guidance to its diversified, large-cap master limited partnership that owned and operated midstream energy infrastructure and logistics assets. He took a brief pause from practicing law in 2018 to support MPC as a business development representative in its marine logistics group, fostering relationships and identifying and analyzing growth opportunities for all MPC’s marine operations, both inland and coastal.

Zach spent the first five and a half years of his legal career in private practice in Ohio. While there, he split his practice evenly between litigation and transactional matters and became the youngest person to be named partner in the firm’s more than seventy-year history.

Zach is an active member of the Ohio State Bar Association and the Maritime Law Association of the United States, and admitted in New York, the Western District of Michigan, the Northern District of Indiana, the Northern District of Illinois, the Southern District of New York and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He obtained his Juris Doctor from the Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law in May 2012 and obtained his Bachelor of Arts with honors from Bowling Green State University in 2009.

Latest - Zach Barger

Zach Barger
Senior Associate -
Chicago

Focus

Transport Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Contracts, Projects and Advisory, Maritime & Casualty, Litigation & Asset Recovery, Restructuring & Insolvency, Commodities & Trade, Energy, Shipping & Marine, Commercial

Admissions

  • Attorney at Law (Ohio)
  • Attorney at Law (New York)
  • US District Court for the Western District of Michigan
  • US District Court for the Northern District of Indiana
  • US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
  • US District Court for the Southern District of New York
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

Highlights of Zach’s work include:

  • Representation of an NVOCC in the Southern District of New York to void a settlement agreement relating to services provided under previous bills of lading that, without the NVOCC realizing, included tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of services that were not previously agreed upon to settle.
  • Representation of a multinational investor in maritime infrastructure in a multi-million-dollar sale and long-term leaseback of a 60-acre shipyard and production facility in the Great Lakes that builds custom boats; services commercial ships, including freighters, cement vessels, barges, and tugs; and performs other miscellaneous services in the maritime industry.
  • Representation of a charterer in the Southern District of Florida seeking a seven-figure judgment against its bunker supplier for bunkers provided to its bulk carrier that were off-specification based on the ISO 8217 standard.
  • Representation of a European winery against allegations said to sound in breach of contract and unjust enrichment brought by its alleged US distributor. Zach’s responsibilities prior to trial included preparing and arguing a Daubert motion regarding the opponent’s alleged expert witness on damages and countering a Daubert motion made by the opposition regarding his client’s rebuttal expert witness. The matter culminated in a 10-day jury trial in the Southern District of New York, where Zach cross-examined the opposition’s expert, presented his rebuttal expert, and argued issues as they arose.
  • Representation of EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG in its negotiations with Venture Global LNG in relation to two Sales and Purchase Agreements for 1.5 MTPA of LNG from Venture Global’s Plaquemines and CP2 facilities. The SPAs were for 20-year periods and were the first for Venture Global with German off-takers.

Interested in specific aspects of Zach’s recent work? Contact [email protected] for further reference cases.

Professional Experience

  • Senior Associate, Zeiler Floyd Zadkovich, Chicago/USA (since November 2020)
  • Attorney, Midstream Operations: Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Findlay, OH (2019-2020)
  • Business Development Representative, Marine: Marathon Petroleum Corporation, Findlay, OH (2018-2019)
  • Partner, Drake, Phillips, Kuenzli & Clark (2016-2018)
  • Associate, Drake Phillips, Kuenzli & Clark (2012-2016)

 Education

  • Juris Doctor, Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law, Ada, OH (2012)
  • Bachelor of Arts (cum laude), Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH (2009)