Lawyer Overview
Jonathan B. Nelson is a Partner and Co-Chair of the Litigation Department at Dorf Nelson & Zauderer LLP. For more than three decades, he has represented corporations, executives, boards, and institutional clients in high-stakes, bet-the-business disputes in federal and state courts across the United States.
Mr. Nelson brings to every major commercial dispute a combination of experience that is rare at any firm: the courtroom instincts of a career trial attorney, the strategic perspective of a former in-house corporate executive, and the hard-edged discipline of a prosecutor. Clients who need that combination and who expect direct, senior-level attention and personal accountability from intake through verdict consistently find what they are looking for at Dorf Nelson & Zauderer. Mr. Nelson is hands-on at every stage of every matter he handles. That level of engagement is not something a large institutional firm can consistently deliver at the senior level, regardless of what is promised at the pitch.
Before entering private practice, Mr. Nelson served as Assistant General Counsel at Compass Group USA, Inc., the publicly traded subsidiary of Compass Group PLC, one of the world's largest corporations. In that role, he managed complex litigation and outside counsel relationships from the client's side of the table - an experience that shapes the way he evaluates every dispute today. A litigator who has sat where the client sits thinks differently about risk, strategy, and what winning actually requires.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Nelson served as a Senior Trial Attorney at the Office of the Kings County District Attorney in Brooklyn, New York, where he prosecuted felonies and was selected to help establish an elite bureau focused on the most complex prosecutions in the office. The trial skills forged in that environment - constructing a persuasive narrative under pressure, reading a courtroom, winning when the stakes are highest - are the foundation of his commercial litigation practice.
As Co-Chair of the Litigation Department, Mr. Nelson oversees more than thirty attorneys across the firm's Business Litigation, Real Estate Litigation, Healthcare and General Liability Defense, Insurance Defense and Coverage, Professional Liability Defense, and Trusts and Estates Litigation groups. The department is ranked by Chambers and Partners in the 2026 New York Spotlight Guide.
Mr. Nelson's practice focuses on complex commercial disputes involving breach of contract, corporate governance, partnership and shareholder conflicts, fraud and business torts, and high-stakes appeals. He represents clients in federal and state courts across the country. Corporations, private equity-backed companies, family-owned businesses, and executives facing disputes where the outcome materially affects the enterprise retain Mr. Nelson when they need a litigator who is personally accountable for the result.