Kathleen E. Cassidy

Kathleen E. Cassidy is an experienced criminal defense lawyer whose practice focuses on representing individuals and organizations in federal and state criminal investigations and proceedings, as well as regulatory and internal corporate investigations.

Kate has defended clients in high-profile cases and investigations involving RICO charges, public corruption and bribery allegations, antitrust violations, all manner of financial frauds, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, campaign finance irregularities, and sexual assault allegations. Kate is adept at helping clients navigate the stressful process of a criminal investigation and is devoted to achieving the most favorable result for her clients. Kate has trial experience in both state and federal court and in front of FINRA disciplinary panels. She also often achieves favorable results for clients without going to trial, including convincing prosecutors not to charge, obtaining dismissal of pending charges, and resolving charges by negotiating favorable pleas and sentences. Kate has been on both sides of internal investigations – she has conducted investigations on behalf of the Board or Audit Committee as well as represented employees being interviewed in internal investigations. Kate regularly helps students and their families navigate university gender misconduct proceedings.

Kate represents indigent defendants as a member of the federal Criminal Justice Act Panel for the Southern District of New York.  She serves as a board member of the New York Council of Defense Lawyers, the co-chair of the White Collar Criminal Litigation Committee of the New York State Bar Association, and is a member of the Women's White Collar Defense Association. She was named a “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation and named “Up and Coming” by Chambers USA in the area of White Collar Crime and Government Investigations, which reported "She really dug deep into difficult legal and factual issues, and she is a great writer and a gifted strategic thinker." Kate recently served as co-chair of the Subcommittee on Sentencing Reform as part of the New York State Bar Association’s Task Force on the Modernization of Criminal Practice.

Prior to joining Morvillo Abramowitz, Kate was a partner at Necheles Cassidy LLP, formerly Hafetz & Necheles LLP, defending clients in federal and state criminal cases. Earlier in her career Kate practiced at Cooley LLP, where she was part of a trial team that obtained an acquittal at the retrial of a wrongfully convicted man who spent more than fifteen years behind bars for a murder he did not commit.

Kate received her J.D. from Columbia Law School in 2006 where she was named a James Kent Scholar and Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. She received her B.A. from Yale College in 2000.