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Neil L. Zola
President and Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Zola joined GCG as its first-ever General Counsel in May 2000. In September 2006, Mr. Zola was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer. His training as an attorney, combined with his contacts in the class action bar, have helped expand the breadth of GCG's services. As a former class action litigator, Neil L. Zola brings to client engagements an insider's perspective with extensive class action experience and operations knowledge. He is very familiar with the issues faced by GCG's clients at all stages of the process.

Mr. Zola began his legal career at Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP, a class action litigation boutique firm in New York. There he worked for nearly ten years on a multitude of complex litigation including class action securities fraud and antitrust cases, mergers and acquisitions-related matters, shareholder derivative cases, and consumer fraud cases. He became a member of the firm in 1997.

Mr. Zola has authored several articles for legal publications including, "Notice Requirements in the Wake of Orthopedic Bone Screw" published in The New York Law Journal. He has been a speaker on class action issues on several occasions, including the ISS Securities Class Action Services webcast presentation, "A Behind the Scenes Look at the Claims Filing Process."

A member of the American Bar Association and the American Corporate Counsel Association, Mr. Zola is a recipient of the Distinguished Legal Service Award sponsored by Corporate Legal Times and Lexis-Nexis. He also served on the board of the UCLA School of Law Alumni Association between 2004 and 2006.

Mr. Zola did his undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated cum laude with a B.A. in English. He received his J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where he co-authored a study of recycling management that served as the basis for a resolution passed in the California legislature regarding recycling programs in the UC system.