DYNAMITE
EMPLOYMENT LAWYER KATHLEEN CAHILL
SHAKES THINGS UP LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY
BY JOAN HENNESSY
PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUIGI CIUFFETELLI
William Blake, a decorated undercover
detective for the Baltimore County Police
Department (BCPD), is a tough man
in a tough city. But six years ago, after
testifying for a fellow officer and against
the department, he was ordered to take a
fitness-for-duty exam. He suddenly needed
a lawyer and his union pointed him toward
Kathleen Cahill.
“She’s a small lady,” says Blake,
remembering his first meeting with Cahill,
who stands 5 feet 3 inches tall. “But there’s
a lot of dynamite packed in there.”
Colleagues and clients describe Cahill as
tenacious, and that’s an essential quality
for anyone involved in employment law and
civil rights cases, which can be resource-
intensive with no guarantee of success.
“You have to stay with it and understand
the law and how it works and see a case
through to its conclusion,” says Sherrilyn
Ifill, professor at University of Maryland
School of Law and board member of the
Open Society Institute—Baltimore. “You
have to go all in.”
“All in” describes Cahill, who has
bottles of vitamin water lining her desk.
In conversation, she frequently uses the
expression, “lit up,” as in “I was lit up by it.”
The Blake case lit her up, too.
KATHLEEN CAHILL · LAW OFFICES OF KATHLEEN CAHILL · EMPLOYMENT & LABOR/ EMPLOYMENT LITIGATION: PLAINTIFF/ PERSONAL INJURY PLAINTIFF: GENERAL · MARYLAND SUPER LAWYERS: 2007–2012; TOP 25 WOMEN: 2007, 2008, 2011–2012; TOP 50: 2012
