Summary of Experience

Eugene F. Zelek, Jr. focuses on marketing-related law, applying extensive counseling, transactional, and litigation expertise on behalf of wide variety of leading consumer and industrial businesses and consulting firms throughout the world.  His areas of emphasis include antitrust, pricing, and distribution, as well as branding, licensing, entertainment, strategic alliances, supply relationships, complex contracts, advertising, and new product development.

Mr. Zelek joined Freeborn & Peters LLP after practicing marketing law at a large international law firm and The Quaker Oats Company, then becoming a Quaker Product Manager with shared responsibility for Quaker’s Cap’n Crunch® cereal and Chewy granola bars. He is a partner in the firm’s Business Law Services and Litigation Practice Groups and chairs the Antitrust and Trade Regulation Practice Group.

Peer Ratings

In addition to having been awarded the highest rating for legal ability and ethics by Martindale, other peer reviews have named or ranked Mr. Zelek as:

• a Super Lawyer in Antitrust, Intellectual Property, and Franchising and Dealership work
• a Leading Lawyer in Antitrust, Advertising, Intellectual Property, and Entertainment
• one of the Best Lawyers in America in Antitrust, Advertising, and Entertainment
• a Leading Individual in Antitrust and Media and Entertainment (Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business)
• recognized in Competition/Antitrust Law (PLC Cross-Border Handbook)

Recent Published Works

Since 2001, Mr. Zelek has written, co-authored or contributed to the following works, which reflect only part of the scope of his practice:

• Avoiding Corrosive Price Competition, in Institute of Channel Management (Volume 3, Number 1) (2009)
• ABA Section of Antitrust Law and Forum Committee on Franchising, Antitrust Handbook for Franchise and Distribution Practitioners (2008)
• Reed K. Holden and Mark Burton, Pricing with Confidence: Ten Ways to Stop Leaving Money on The Table (2008)
• Mike Marks, Tim Horan and Mike Emerson, Working at Cross Purposes: How Distributors and Manufacturers Can Manage Conflict Successfully (2006)
• The Legal Framework for Pricing, in Thomas T. Nagle and John E. Hogan, The Strategies and Tactics of Pricing (4th ed. 2006) and, as Thomas T. Nagle and Reed K. Holden, (3rd ed. 2002)
• Michael V. Marn, Eric V. Roegner and Craig C. Zawada, The Price Advantage (2004)
• ABA Section of Antitrust Law, Frequently Asked Questions (2004)
• Establishing and Maintaining an Effective Resale Price Policy: A Colgate How-To, Antitrust 8 (Summer 2003) (co-authored with Brian R. Henry)
• Role of Regulation in Setting Prices, in Kellogg on Marketing (Dawn Iacobucci, ed. 2001)
• Anne T. Coughlan, Erin Anderson, Louis W. Stern and Adel i. El-Ansary, Marketing Channels (6th ed. 2001)

Academic Affiliation

Mr. Zelek has been a member of the adjunct marketing faculty at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management since 1985, having taught an annual 10-week MBA course—“The Legal Aspects of Marketing Strategy”—for 11 years.  He also has served on the faculty of the Kellogg Executive Programs “Pricing Strategies and Tactics” and “Marketing Channel Strategies,” as well as that of many other domestic and international public and private conferences and workshops.

Relevant Subject Matter Links

§         Business Law Services
          Business Counseling
               Antitrust and Trade Regulation
               E-commerce and Supply Chain
               Franchise and Dealership
               Marketing
          Intellectual Property and Information Technology
          International
§         Litigation
          Antitrust and Trade Regulation
          Complex Disputes
          Franchise and Dealership
          Intellectual Property Litigation