Gino A. Zonghetti

Overview

Gino A. Zonghetti, co-managing partner of our New Jersey office, concentrates his practice in the defense and counseling of clients in maritime litigation. He also defends clients in general liability matters including personal injury defense and employment practices cases. 

Mr. Zonghetti represents maritime insurers including various domestic insurers and foreign P&I underwriters, vessel operators, tug boat operators, marinas, marine terminals, stevedoring companies, pleasure craft owners and cruise boats in a variety of maritime claims. These include personal injury, hull damage, cargo damage and groundings, collisions, allisions, mass torts, limitation of liability actions, asbestos claims, employment practices liability claims, vessel sale and financing and administrative actions. Mr. Zonghetti also has significant experience in representing clients involved in governmental investigations and criminal matters. He has served as lead counsel in an admiralty matter involving a mass casualty resulting from a ferry boat colliding with a dock resulting in over 150 personal injury claims. Mr. Zonghetti spearheaded the operator’s defense including its response to the investigations of the National Safety Transportation Board and the United States Coast Guard, as well as defending against the injury claims filed in a limitation of liability proceeding with successful results.

Mr. Zonghetti has significant experience in defending nonprofit corporations that provide social services including foster care, health care, and residential and non-residential services to individuals with a variety of developmental disabilities. He also defends religious organizations in general liability claims, which have included sexual assault and physical abuse claims. Additionally, he has significant experience representing clients facing governmental investigations including grand jury investigations brought by state and federal prosecutors.

Mr. Zonghetti engages in an active trial and appellate practice in New York and New Jersey and has been appointed as panel counsel for several major insurance companies. He has tried numerous cases to verdict in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, as well as in United States District Courts in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.

Mr. Zonghetti is an accomplished appellate attorney, having briefed and argued numerous cases in the Appellate Division, First and Second Department, and the First and Second Circuit Courts of Appeals. He is admitted to practice in New York, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and Massachusetts. Mr. Zonghetti has tried scores of cases to verdict in the state and federal courts of New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. He has been invited to present at seminars conducted by P&I Clubs on maritime-related issues including defendant traumatic brain injury claims and maritime investigations. 

Previously in his career, Mr. Zonghetti served as an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan district attorney’s office working in both the appellate and trial bureaus. While serving as a felony trial assistant his responsibilities included investigating, indicting, and prosecuting cases involving sex crimes. Additionally, he practiced at a Wall Street law firm where he specialized in defending corporations in professional liability actions.

Mr. Zonghetti earned his law degree at Catholic University Law School in Washington, D.C. and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Franklin & Marshall College. 

Professional Memberships

• Maritime Lawyers Association
• New York County Lawyers Association