Richard T. Cassidy

I am a Vermont personal injury and employment lawyer.  I also work as an arbitrator and mediator.

Our firm, Rich Cassidy Law represents people, not businesses or institutions. We focus on personal injury litigation and employment law. We represent people who have been injured due to the fault of others and employees in disputes with their employers or former employers. 

Why? We want to make a living doing work that is worthwhile. Early in my career, I represented all sides in many kinds of disputes. But I simply didn’t find it satisfying to represent insurance companies and big businesses. It is true that business must pay attention to the bottom line. But many companies don’t seem to care about anything else. They just want to resolve claims as cheaply as they can. For them, people’s troubles are just balance sheet issues.

Serving that narrow way of seeing the world is not how I want to spend my life. 

Injured people really need help. You have medical bills to pay. You have lost wages and earnings. You have been in pain, and may still be in pain. You may have disabilities. You may have suffered the loss of a loved one.

Some employers treat their employees well. But many do not. Some employers seem to ignore the fact that hard working, loyal employees depend on their salaries and benefits to provide for their families and themselves. 

​Justice is not given; it is achieved. Without help from a competent, experienced lawyer, you may get nothing, or whatever pittance the insurance companies or employers choose to give you.  

​I've also worked throughtout my career to make the law work more fairly and effectively. 

I am the immediate Past President of the Uniform Law Commission. I was appointed as a Vermont Member of the Uniform Law Commission in 1994. I served as a member of the Drafting Committee on the Model Punitive Damages Act, the Drafting Committee on the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act, the Drafting Committee on the Apportionment of Tort Responsibility Act, and Scope & Program Committee and he chaired the Drafting Committee on the Uniform Collateral Consequences of Conviction Act. I served as Secretary of the Commission from 2009 through 2011 and Chair of its Scope and Program Committee from 2011 through 2013. I chaired its Executive Committee from 2013 through 2015.  

I represented the Vermont Bar Association in the American Bar Association House of Delegates from 1999 to 2005 and 2008 through 2015. I served as a member of the ABA Board Governors from 2005 through 2008. I am a former Chair of the ABA's Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services.

I was a long-time member of the Vermont Board of Bar Examiners serving as both chair of the board and examiner from 1990 until 2004. 

I am a former President of the American Counsel Association. 

I write and speak regularly on legal topics.  I maintain a blog, On Lawyering, which provides news and commentary on the law and the culture of lawyers.

I have lectured on trial practice, employment, arbitration, mediation, and construction law subjects before the American Bar Association, the National Employment Lawyers' Association, the Vermont Bar Association, the Vermont Trial Lawyers Association, and the Vermont Employment Lawyers' Association.

I have been selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers® and New England Super Lawyers® by his peers. (Listing in The Best Lawyers in America® or Super Lawyers® does not guarantee a desired result in a legal case or that listed lawyers are necessarily more skilled than lawyers who are not listed in such publications.) 

I am a  1975 graduate of the University of Vermont and a 1978 graduate of Albany Law School. I served as law clerk to the Honorable Robert W. Larrow of the Vermont Supreme Court in 1978-79, and as Chief Law Clerk to Chief Justice Albert W. Barney in 1979-80 before entering private practice in 1980. 

A South Burlington resident, I was a member of the South Burlington School Board for 12 years, and Chair the Board for 6 of those years. I also served as Chair of the Vermont Solid Waste and Air Quality Variance Board from 1993 through 2005. 

When I am not practicing law or in a committee meeting, I enjoy reading, skiing, swimming, and rowing my Adirondack Guide Boat on Lake Champlain, and most of all, walking my dog, Baxter.