Allison Zieve

Director, Public Citizen Litigation Group

Allison M. Zieve joined Public Citizen Litigation Group in August 1994. In 2009, she became the Group’s director and director of our Supreme Court Assistance Project. She also serves as General Counsel of Public Citizen.

Ms. Zieve’s litigation practice areas include public health (such drug safety and food labeling issues), consumer safety and consumer financial protection, open government, federal preemption, class action abuse, and First Amendment issues. Many of her cases involve issues related to the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and to regulation by the Food and Drug Administration. She has also litigated against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Department of Justice, and the Department of Health and Human Services, among other agencies. Among the cases litigated by Ms. Zieve are Marx v. General Revenue Corp., 568 U.S. 371 (2013); Riegel v. Medtronic, Inc., 552 U.S. 312 (2008) (preemption of state tort law), Warner-Lambert Co. v. Kent, 552 U.S. 440 (2008) (preemption of provision of Michigan product liability law), Will v. Hallock, 126 U.S. 952 (2006) (Federal Tort Claims Act), and Dusenbery v. United States, 534 U.S. 161 (2002) (due process).

Allison serves as a senior member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and as a member of the American Law Institute, and she has served as a board member and board chair of the Food and Drug Law Institute. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University School of Law and American University’s Washington College of Law. In addition, since its inception, Ms. Zieve has judged the American Constitution Society’s Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Regulatory and Administrative Law. She has written articles for N.Y.U.’s Annual Survey of American Law, Duke Law School’s Law & Contemporary Problems, TRIAL Magazine, various BNA legal publications, Internal Medicine News, and Regulatory Affairs Journal (UK).

Ms. Zieve is admitted to the District of Columbia Bar and is admitted to practice before numerous federal courts. She graduated from Brown University and Yale Law School.