Jacalyn J. Zimmerman is a labor arbitrator/mediator with a private practice based in the Chicago area. A career labor relations neutral, she maintained an active arbitration practice from 2006 to late 2009, when she suspended the practice to accept an appointment from then Illinois Governor Pat Quinn as the Chairman of the Illinois Labor Relations Board. She held that position until resuming the arbitration practice in September 2012. She had previously served
as the agency’s founding General Counsel. She began her legal career as a trial attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, Region 13.
Jackie is an Academy Local Regional Chair. She is a fellow of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has served as a member of the College’s Credentials Committee for the 7th Circuit. Jackie is a vice president of the National Association of Railroad Referees, has been the neutral co-chair of the American Bar Association Committee on State and Local Government Bargaining and Employment Law, and is a past president of the Association of
Labor Relations Agencies.
Jackie has also been a member of the adjunct faculty at the Institute for Law and the Workplace, Illinois Institute of Technology/Chicago Kent College of Law, where she taught labor law and legal writing courses. She is a frequent speaker and trainer on labor relations issues. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Loyola University of Chicago School of Law and is admitted to the practice of law in Illinois and California.