William P. Ziegelmueller

William P. Ziegelmueller jointed the firm at its inception and is currently a member (partner) of Stetler, Duffy & Rotert, Ltd. Mr. Ziegelmueller focuses his practice on white collar criminal defense and civil litigation, primarily in federal courts nationwide. Mr. Ziegelmueller has significant courtroom expertise, including first-chair trial experience in both civil and criminal cases. Mr. Ziegelmueller also has argued both civil and criminal cases on appeal.

Mr. Ziegelmueller has played a key role in several high-profile criminal cases. With Dave Stetler, he represented the lead defendant in a nationally significant health care fraud trial of several executives of TAP Pharmaceuticals, all of whom were acquitted after a three-month jury trial in Boston. Mr. Ziegelmueller led the discovery effort and second-chaired the defense at trial of an executive of Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Illinois, who was acquitted along with three co-defendants after a long trial in the Southern District of Illinois. More recently, he represented Antoin Rezko, a prominent adviser to former governor Rod Blagojevich and other politicians.

Mr. Ziegelmueller has represented many other individual and corporate health care providers in responding to government audits and investigations and, if necessary, in defending against civil or criminal charges. Mr. Ziegelmueller also has defended numerous individuals accused of mail and wire fraud, tax fraud, accounting irregularities, extortion, bribery, kickbacks, perjury, antitrust violations, and foreign corrupt practices.

Mr. Ziegelmueller has defended many clients in securities fraud investigations and enforcement actions conducted by the SEC and other regulatory agencies. Mr. Ziegelmueller’s civil litigation experience includes many executive employment and compensation disputes, corporate breach of contract matters and insurance disputes.

Mr. Ziegelmueller graduated magna cum laude from Wake Forest University in 1991 and received his law degree in 1994 from Northwestern University School of Law, where he served as coordinating note editor of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Mr. Ziegelmueller began his career at McDermott, Will & Emery.

Mr. Ziegelmueller is a member of the Illinois bar, the general and trial bars of the Northern District of Illinois, and the bar of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Mr. Ziegelmueller has also been admitted to practice in before federal courts in many other states and is a member of several bar associations. Mr. Ziegelmueller was a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” in 2009 and has been named an Illinois “Super Lawyer” and “Leading Lawyer” each year since.