Jo Ann Palchak is experienced in a broad range of criminal defense, civil, juvenile, and appellate matters. Before joining Zuckerman Spaeder, Ms. Palchak clerked for the Honorable Darryl C. Casanueva at the Second District Court of Appeal in Florida. Prior to her clerkship, she worked as an assistant public defender in the 13th Judicial Circuit where she represented clients in misdemeanor, juvenile and felony cases and acquired extensive court room experience.

While in law school Ms. Palchak served as a research assistant for several members of the law faculty, and also pursued her own research interests in the areas of genocide studies and gender crime. Her work analyzed key opinions from the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia with a focus on how those decisions could protect women during future periods of internal conflict. She presented this work at the International Association of Genocide Scholars' convention and donated her research materials to the research library of the international courts of both Rwanda and Yugoslavia in the Hague.

Before law school, Ms. Palchak worked as a principal engineer in the bug diagnostics and escalation group at Oracle Corporation. She also worked for Westinghouse and an internet start-up prior to her employment at Oracle.