What Dewey Know About Zachary Warren, Defendant No. 4 In The Criminal Case?

What do we know about this handsome and highly accomplished young lawyer? He's extremely bright and he's legal-world aristocracy, for starters.

Last week brought some good news for Georgetown University Law Center. In the latest U.S. News law school rankings, GULC moved up one spot to tie at #13 with Cornell. Go Hoyas!

Alas, over the past year the news has been less happy for some individual GULC students and graduates. About a year ago, former student Marc Gersen got sentenced to four years for meth dealing. Earlier this year, alumnus Stephen Glass got rejected for California bar admission, due to his notorious past as a dishonest journalist.

In recent weeks, a very accomplished (and handsome) GULC graduate, currently clerking for a federal appeals court judge, got indicted in connection with the collapse of Dewey & LeBoeuf. What Dewey know about Zachary Warren?

Zachary Warren has become something of a controversial figure, for reasons we’ll get into. For now, let’s start off with the undisputed facts (besides his hotness), which come primarily from profiles of him in the American Lawyer (by Sara Randazzo) and the New York Times (by James Stewart):

1. Zach Warren is currently 29 years old (turning 30 in October).

2. He graduated from Stanford University in 2006 with a degree in international relations.

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3. After graduating from Stanford, he worked at Dewey & LeBoeuf in 2008 and 2009, helping partners collect on client bills. His initial salary was $40,000, but he got promoted to “client relations manager” in June 2008, a role with a salary of $100,000 a year. He also received sizable bonuses of $75,000 in 2008 and $40,000 in 2009, according to prosecutors.

4. He left Dewey in the middle of 2009 to enroll at Georgetown University Law Center.

5. He did very well at GULC, serving as an executive articles editor of the Georgetown Law Journal and graduating in 2012, magna cum laude (i.e., in the top 10 percent of the graduating class).

6. He clerked for Judge J. Frederick Motz of the District of Maryland. (Fun fact: Judge Fred Motz is married to Judge Diana Gribbon Motz of the Fourth Circuit, which reviews his appeals.)

7. Judge Fred Motz raved about his former clerk to the New York Times, which contacted the judge post-indictment. Said Judge Motz: “Zack is a wonderful person, a decent, fine young man. I’m so sorry he’s being put through what’s happening. He worked very hard and was a wonderful person to have in the office. I trust him completely.”

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8. He is currently clerking for Judge Julia Smith Gibbons of the Sixth Circuit (who’s supposed to be a lovely person, according to one Sixth Circuit source of ours). Despite the Dewey indictment, Zach Warren has held on to his clerkship.

9. He has an offer of full-time employment from Williams & Connolly, which the elite litigation firm has not rescinded (and I’d be surprised if they did; W&C is a firm of “true believers” when it comes to defendants’ rights and prosecutorial overreach).

10. Zach is legal-world aristocracy: according to the NYT, his father is a retired California state court judge and his mother is a law professor at William & Mary.

His parents appear to be Judge Roger K. Warren, who served as a judge on the Sacramento Superior Court from 1976 to 1996, and Professor Christie S. Warren, an expert in international and comparative law. There are several retired California judges with the last name of Warren, but we’re fairly sure that Roger K. Warren is Zachary’s father. It looks like the Warrens helped Zach buy a D.C. home in 2009, when Zach moved to Washington for law school.

Now let’s turn to the controversial stuff, relating to Zach Warren’s being charged in the Dewey criminal case — and how law enforcement supposedly treated him during the course of the investigation….