James S. Zavakos

Jim Zavakos joined the Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos in 1998 and has relentlessly worked on behalf of injured individuals for over 25 years. He began his career as part of the team that represented the state of Maryland against the tobacco industry and helped secure over $4 Billion for the state. In 2011, Jim was an integral part of a team of attorneys that pursued a mass tort action against ExxonMobil Corporation, representing 164 households and businesses in Jacksonville, Maryland, whose potable wells were contaminated by a 26,000-gallon gasoline release from an ExxonMobil service station in 2006. The case eventually went to trial resulting in a jury verdict of $1.5 billion in compensatory and punitive damages; one of the largest civil verdicts in Maryland history.

For more than 20 years, a large part of Jim’s practice has focused on representing individuals harmed by exposure to asbestos. Along with his colleagues at Peter Angelos Law, Jim has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for the firm’s asbestos clients by obtaining numerous seven-figure verdicts and countless multi-million-dollar pre-verdict settlements in Baltimore City Circuit Court and Federal District Court. Jim now oversees negotiating settlement agreements on behalf of the firm’s asbestos clients.  

Jim has successfully argued cases before the Supreme Court of Maryland and the Appellate Court of Maryland. Recently, Jim has been part of a team of attorneys that represented military veterans injured by defective 3M Combat Arms earplugs, as well as veterans and family members who were exposed to toxic chemicals at Camp LeJeune in North Carolina.