Johanna Zelman is the office managing partner for FordHarrison's Hartford, Connecticut office.
Johanna’s unique background results in highly competent, in-depth, and knowledgeable advice and representation for her clients. While she has represented a wide variety of employers from various industries on matters ranging from general advice on daily human resource related to matters, to highly fact specific investigations, to wage and hour class and collective actions, Johanna has a specific strength public sector and public school and university employment issues. Johanna counsels and represents local governments and school boards in a wide array of matters, including, conducting investigations and appeal proceedings based on employee, student, and parent complaints, Title IX investigations, serving as a Title IX decisionmaker, special education, teacher terminations, administrative proceedings, and litigation.
Johanna’s litigation experience is extensive. She has litigated and successfully defended her clients before a multitude of state and federal appellate and trial courts, including the United States Court of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits, the United States District Courts for the District of Connecticut, the Northern, Southern, and Eastern Districts of New York, the District of Massachusetts, and the District of Maine, the Connecticut Supreme, Appellate, and Superior Courts, and the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, and Court of Appeals. She has also represented employers and school districts before various state and federal administrative agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission, the United States Department of Labor, the United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights, the United States Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights, the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, the Connecticut State Department of Education, the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission, the Connecticut Workers' Compensation Commission, the Connecticut and New York Departments of Labor, and the New York State and New York City Divisions of Human Rights.