Lisa Cahill

Lisa Cahill is a graduate of Georgetown University and the William & Mary Law School, where she was an Executive Editor of the William & Mary Law Review. She began her legal career in a two-year federal District Court clerkship with the late T.F. Gilroy Daly in Connecticut and then entered private practice in New York City. Over the next 20 plus years, she worked at two litigation firms — Zuckerman Spaeder and Hughes Hubbard & Reed — and was elected to the partnerships of both firms.

Ms. Cahill’s work over those years was divided between civil litigation and criminal defense work in both the federal and state courts. The mix was considerable. Highlights included creatively laying a record in a high profile federal criminal case which would later yield a reversal of every single count of conviction; obtaining a Second Circuit reversal which announced new law in the complex Erie choice-of-law arena; and leading the successful fight for the vacatur of a pro bono client’s manslaughter conviction.

In May 2016, after obtaining her client’s exoneration in the manslaughter case, Ms. Cahill took a leave of absence from Hughes Hubbard to continue representing the client in her effort to obtain compensation from the City and State of New York for her ten years’ wrongful imprisonment. Ms. Cahill succeeded in negotiating a rare pre-litigation settlement with the City and litigated with the State until the eve of trial, when she obtained a meaningful settlement of the client’s claim under the Unjust Conviction and Imprisonment Act.

After settling both wrongful conviction cases, Ms. Cahill returned to her diverse areas of practice, which comprise a sophisticated mix of criminal defense work and commercial litigation.

Ms. Cahill lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.