Zak Colangelo-Trenner is an associate attorney in the firm’s Miami office. Zak has years of experience successfully representing some of the world’s largest insurance carriers, both domestically and abroad. He is a skilled litigator who focuses his practice on marine and general liability insurance matters, including coverage review and analysis, declaratory judgment litigation, and bad faith disputes. 

Prior to joining the firm, Zak worked at several boutique appellate and maritime firms in Miami, fine tuning his skills as a litigator. 

Zak has co-authored multiple law review articles about the intersection of privacy issues and technology, and, while in law school,  was the Editor-in-Chief of the University of Miami Business Law Review.

PRACTICE AREAS

Admiralty & Maritime

Insurance

Property & Casualty

Subrogation

Education

J.D., magna cum laude, University of Miami School of Law

Editor-in-Chief of the University of Miami Business Law Review

Order of the Coif

Book Award for Highest Grades in multiple subjects

B.A., Washington and Lee University

Four-year letterman in NCAA Division III Wrestling

Admissions

  • Florida

  • US District Court for the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida

Recognition

  • The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, Insurance Law (2023 – present)
  • The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, Product Liability Litigation – Defendants (2023 – present)

Experience

  • Obtained order granting summary judgment in product liability case in which the plaintiff had killed an individual while driving drunk and unsuccessfully sought to shift responsibility to the manufacturers of the alcoholic beverages that she consumed. | Obtained the first published decision in Florida state or federal court reducing an award of attorney’s fees under the discretionary factors enumerated in Florida’s offer-of-judgment statute. Atl. Marine Fla., LLC v. Evanston Ins. Co., No. 3:08-cv-538-J-20JBT, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178619, at *3 (M.D. Fla. Nov. 24, 2015).

Presentations

  • “Self-Defense Against Robots & Drones.” We Robot Conference 2015. | “Privacy as Safety.” Amsterdam Privacy Conference 2018.

Publications

  • Safety as Privacy, Arizona L. Rev. (forthcoming Winter 2022), with Professor A. Michael Froomkin and Phillip Arencibia
  • Privacy as Safety, 95 Wash. L. Rev. 141 (2020), with Professor A. Michael Froomkin
  • Self-Defense Against Robots & Drones, 48 Conn. L. Rev. 1 (2015), with Professor A. Michael Froomkin