Greene, A. Kent

Zachary L. Grayson is a founding member of Salaman Grayson, P.C.  A former partner in the Litigation Department of Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, he graduated from the University of Pittsburgh Law School in 1988.  Following his graduation from law school, Zach was hired under the Honors Program to serve as trial counsel in the Special Operations Unit of the Division of Enforcement of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, D.C.  In that capacity, Zach was involved in the Hunt Brothers silver manipulation litigation and in the investigation and prosecution of other complex fraudulent schemes, both in the United States and abroad.

Since leaving the CFTC, Zach has investigated and litigated fidelity, directors and officers liability, corporate espionage and international fraud and other claims arising in West Africa, the Middle East, Russia, Europe and throughout the United States.  Zach spearheaded Wolf, Block’s representation of the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner in investigating the $285 million collapse of Corporate Life Insurance Company – at that time, the largest insurance company insolvency in the history of the Commonwealth.  In that connection, Zach has litigated numerous attendant Corporate Life matters in the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as overseeing litigation in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Israel, Russia and the Isle of Man.  He has also defended directors and officers of insolvent carriers against claims by insurance company liquidators and pursued creditor claims in liquidation.

Zach also served as special counsel to the Governor and Attorney General of Kentucky and to the past four Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioners.  Zach represented the Governor of Kentucky in Kentucky’s negotiations with the tobacco industry culminating in a $5.2 billion settlement for the benefit of tobacco growers.  In appreciation of the role he played, Kentucky Governor Patton personally bestowed upon Zach the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel.  Among the matters in which he represented the Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner is the $4.5 billion restructuring of CIGNA. 

In addition to his insurance and government-related representations, Zach has litigated or negotiated a variety of other complex commercial matters including: complex construction claims, copyright cases in New York, Pennsylvania and the Middle East, and coverage cases involving bonds, commercial liability, professional liability, ERISA, disability and life insurance, Bankers Blanket Bonds, contempt issues, asbestos and silicosis, personal injury and property damage, restrictive covenant liability, religious schismatic issues and a case involving the reconstruction of the text of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  Zach made law in the ERISA context by having a company's profit-sharing plan representatives removed from directing litigation against Wachovia Bank and others in mid-litigation, a result not disturbed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals; in a matter of first impression, successfully blocked the City of Hoboken and other municipalities from restricting risk retention groups from providing coverage to taxis and limousines; and settled a number of multimillion dollar commodities case for pennies on the dollar.

A protégé of Jerome J. Shestack, former president of the ABA, and a fellow bibliophile, Zach has undergraduate degrees in Jewish, Russian and East European Studies.  Shestack described Zach as “One of the brightest attorneys and best writers I’ve had the pleasure to work with.”  Zach has served as counsel to the international governing board of Chabad and represented Chabad in regard to the Swiss Bank Holocaust litigation and in schismatic battles before the New York Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals.  Zach successfully litigated the copyright dispute surrounding Rabbi Schneerson’s biography in the New York Federal courts.

He served on the ABA Special Task Force on Insurance Insolvency and is a member of various insurance and telecommunications committees of the American, Pennsylvania and local bar associations and a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association Judicial Investigation Committee.  Zach is an officer and serves on the board of trustees of various local and national charitable and educations institutions, is a founder of the Justice Project, a pro bono project providing representation of the indigent in the Philadelphia community, is a former president of the B’nai Brith Justice Lodge, Vice President of the Jewish Publication Society and was on the Board of Directors of Friends of Beth Rivkah Schools in New York, and the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists.  He is currently US counsel for Mishan, a social service arm of Histadrut, Israel’s largest union which representing 650,000 members. 

Zach is an avid rare book collector and has one of the finest personal libraries of 15th-19th century Hebraica in the Tri-State area.