Melissa Felder Zappala

Melissa Felder Zappala is a counsel in the litigation department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. She focuses on complex commercial litigation including antitrust, class actions, and business tort disputes, as well as conducting internal investigations. Over the past 15 years, she has been involved in high profile matters including high stakes trial teams involving major technology companies. Zappala represented Uber in Waymo v. Uber, which was a hotly contested trade secrets case regarding the future of self-driving cars, as well as in Malden v. Uber where she was part of the team that secured a complete victory on behalf of Uber against plaintiffs asserting unfair competition claims and seeking over $750 million in damages. She has also represented financial institutions and Fortune 500 companies including one in a month-long trial in California state court involving alleged contractual breaches.

Zappala is also committed to pro bono work. She has taken on pro bono cases involving disability rights and housing issues, and she previously served on the boards of the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and Gaylaw.

She was recognized by the National Law Journal in 2015 as one of the Washington, D.C. area’s top 40 lawyers under 40 and has been featured in articles published in the ABA Journal and the American Lawyer. Zappala earned her bachelor’s degree at Yale University and her J.D. at the Georgetown University Law Center.