A Career Built on Connections: Zane Memeger on Growth, Service, and the Relationships That Endure
October 20, 2026
Zane Memeger’s legal career has moved between private practice, public service, and nonprofit leadership. But across more than three decades—and several significant career transitions—one institution has remained a consistent presence: Morgan Lewis.
Zane began his career as an associate in the firm’s Philadelphia office in 1991. He would ultimately return to Morgan Lewis twice, serving as a litigation partner from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2017 to 2025, with chapters in government service in between. Today, he is executive director of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project (PaIP), where he leads an organization dedicated to helping wrongfully convicted individuals challenge their convictions and rebuild their lives.
His path is a reminder that careers rarely unfold in a straight line. More often, they are shaped by opportunities, changing ambitions, and, perhaps most importantly, the relationships that endure across roles and institutions.
For Zane, many of those relationships began at Morgan Lewis.
“I’ve always had a great experience at Morgan Lewis in terms of the people,” he says. “It’s a really talented team, and people are very dedicated to one another in service of clients.”
As a young Morgan Lewis associate, Zane worked alongside lawyers with significant government experience, including former prosecutors handling white collar matters. Intrigued by their work, he decided he wanted government experience of his own. He left Morgan Lewis intending to spend three to five years as an assistant US attorney. He stayed for 11.
When the time came to return to private practice, the relationships he had maintained at Morgan Lewis helped make the next step feel natural. That return would not be his last transition.
While practicing at Morgan Lewis, Zane was encouraged by a firm partner to consider applying to become US Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He was ultimately nominated and confirmed for the role, beginning a seven-year tenure overseeing approximately 130 prosecutors and working across a broad network of federal, state, and local law enforcement partners.
Zane eventually returned to Morgan Lewis and its government investigations and white collar practice, bringing with him a perspective shaped by years on both sides of government investigations.
Government service had taught him how prosecutors think, build cases, and assess corporate conduct. Private practice, meanwhile, gave him an understanding of how companies actually operate—the competing pressures, organizational dynamics, and business realities behind decisions that can look very different from the outside.
That ability to move between perspectives became a professional advantage.
It also reflects a broader lesson of his career: professional growth often comes from crossing boundaries—between practices, sectors, roles, and communities—and carrying the knowledge and relationships from one experience into the next.
When Zane considers what he carried from Morgan Lewis into government service and, later, nonprofit leadership, he returns repeatedly to mentorship.
“When I was at Morgan Lewis, I always had great mentors,” he says. Whether he was an associate or partner, there were colleagues he could turn to for advice and guidance. “And those relationships have been maintained throughout my career.”
When PaIP’s previous executive director stepped down, Zane decided it was time to make the leap.
“The older you get, the more you learn about yourself and how you’re wired,” he says. He realized he was drawn to organizations centered on service to the community.
Today, he oversees an organization that represents people challenging convictions based on claims of actual innocence, provides reentry support to exonerees, and advocates for reforms intended to prevent wrongful convictions.
For Zane, the mission brings together many of the threads that have run through his career: law, public service, leadership, teamwork, and the ability of strong institutions and professional networks to multiply an individual’s impact.
“The way to grow is to do something a little different, challenge yourself, and learn,” he says.
His career has taken him from Morgan Lewis to government, back to the firm, back to public service, again to Morgan Lewis, and now into nonprofit leadership. Through each transition, relationships have provided continuity—and helped make the next chapter possible.