Goulston & Storrs, an Am Law 200 firm, is pleased to announce that Director Richard M. Zielinski, Co-Chair of the firm’s Professional Liability Practice Group, has been selected as a member of Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly’s inaugural “Hall of Fame” class for his contributions to the development of the law in Massachusetts, his contributions to the bar, and his efforts to improve the quality of justice.

Zielinski is a nationally known trial lawyer who handles a wide range of complex, bet-the-company litigation matters. He is perhaps best known as a consummate “lawyer’s lawyer” for his representation of AmLaw 100 and 200 law firms in malpractice cases, disciplinary matters and intra-firm disputes. In the late 1990s, Zielinski was appointed by the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) and served a four-year term on the Board of Bar Overseers, which oversees the attorney disciplinary process. In 2012, he served on a Task Force which recommended that the SJC adopt a rule requiring all newly admitted Massachusetts attorneys to complete a Practicing With Professionalism program. 

Zielinski has devoted countless hours throughout his career teaching trial advocacy skills to other lawyers and law students. He has been a regular faculty member in the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop for more than 30 years. He also served on the Board of Trustees of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) for nearly a decade, while conceiving, planning, and teaching dozens of trial practice seminars. In 2016, MCLE awarded Zielinski its Scholar Mentor Award for his dedication to continuing legal education and innovative teaching methods.

Zielinski is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), the highest professional honor a trial lawyer can receive. As Chair of the ACTL’s Teaching Trial Advocacy Committee, he spearheaded a nationwide program devoted to teaching trial advocacy skills to public interest lawyers. As a member and incoming Chair of the ACTL’s National Trial Competition Committee, Zielinski helps oversee the nation’s premier mock trial competition for law students. He has also been active in the Boston Bar Association throughout his career and has held many leadership positions in the organization.

Zielinski has received numerous other awards and honors over the years. He was named Legal Malpractice Defense Lawyer of the Year in Boston by Best Lawyers in America on five separate occasions, and he is perennially ranked by Chambers USA as a Band 1 attorney for General Commercial Litigation in Massachusetts. In 2019, he was named a Litigation Trailblazer by The National Law Journal and, in 2022, he was named as one of Lawdragon’s 500 leading litigators in America. He received his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School and his B.A., summa cum laude, from Colgate University where he graduated first in his class.