In an early review of Plaintiff in Chief, Kirkus Reviews praised the “unique approach to the continuing deconstruction of the Trumpian edifice,” adding that “former federal prosecutor Zirin pieces together a highly damning portrait of Donald Trump as a serial abuser of the law. The book is so incriminating not only because of the author’s credentials, but also because the details are grounded in lawsuits filed by Trump, against Trump, or, in some instances, cross-filed by the opposing parties.” 

Jim is been a leading litigator, who has appeared in federal and state courts around the nation. He is a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, having served in that office under the legendary Robert M. Morgenthau.

His first book, The Mother Court, published in 2014, is about the great trials that went down in the Southern District in the mid twentieth century. It inspired the Shonda Rhimes TV series “For the People.” His second book, Supremely Partisan, questioned the political nature of certain decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States.

He is a principal interlocutor in the critically acclaimed documentary film, “Where’s My Roy Cohn?” released in theaters everywhere.

Jim has written over 200 op-ed articles for The Hill,  the Washington Post, the Washington Monthly, Bill Moyers.com, Bloomberg News, Time, Forbes, the LA Times, the Times (London), Tortoise, and the Nation. He has lectured about his books at Cambridge University, Chatham House in London, the New York Historical Society, and at Princeton University.

A graduate of Princeton with honors, he received his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School where he was an editor of the Michigan Law Review, and elected to the Order of the Coif.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.