Manuel Francisco Cachan

An experienced trial lawyer and litigator, Mr. Cachán has represented Fortune 500 companies before federal and state courts around the country in breach-of-contract litigations, securities and banking actions, professional malpractice cases, suits brought under California’s Unfair Competition Law and many other substantive legal areas. In the last several years, Mr. Cachán has served as trial counsel in various significant and high-profile matters, including:

• for Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. in federal court in St. Paul, Minnesota, in an approximately two-month jury trial alleging mismanagement of pension investments in the bank’s securities lending program;
• for NBCUniversal and KNBC-TV in a one-month jury trial in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging age discrimination, brought by a journalist formerly employed by the company;
• for dick clark productions in a several-week bench trial in federal court involving breach of a production agreement, brought by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association over rights to the Golden Globes show;
• for Rysher Entertainment in a two-week jury trial in a suit brought by the actor Don Johnson, involving his alleged share of profits from a popular television show; and
• for Tesoro Refining and Marketing Company in an approximately one-week jury trial involving damages sustained by the company as a result of the unplanned shut-off a refining tank.

Mr. Cachán has also represented Wells Fargo in several high-stakes litigations, including a class action brought by the City of Los Angeles alleging the bank has engaged in unlawful sales practices, two other matters brought by the cities of Los Angeles and Oakland alleging disparate-impact race discrimination in connection with mortgage lending, and several suits alleging the mismanagement of investments made on behalf of various pension companies. Mr. Cachán has represented NBCUniversal in an arbitration involving the profits from a series of popular made-for-television movies.

Mr. Cachán has been named one of California’s Top 20 Under 40 lawyers by the Los Angeles Daily Journal. The national law publication Law360 named him one of the top lawyers under 40 in the nation. He was selected as one of twelve “Rising Star” attorneys byDiversity & the Bar, published by the Minority Corporate Counsel Association. And for seven consecutive years, Mr. Cachán was named a “Rising Star” in the field of general litigation by Law & Politics Media, Inc., published in Los Angeles magazine.

Mr. Cachán has previously served as a member of the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (JNE) of the State Bar of California, which evaluates all candidates who are under consideration for a judicial appointment by the Governor. He currently serves on the board of governors of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL) in Los Angeles. He sits on the Complex Courts Committee for the Los Angeles County Bar Association. Mr. Cachán also serves on the board of the Mexican-American Bar Foundation, a charitable organization that has provided more than $1 million in scholarships to young Latinos enrolled in ABA-accredited law schools in Southern California.

Mr. Cachán has taken an active role in various pro bono activities that center around his interests in trial work and Latin America. He has served as a faculty member of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy’s “Mexico Project,” traveling to Mexico to help the country's judges, public defenders and prosecutors master basic trial skills. In addition, Mr. Cachán several years ago participated in a consultative session with the Honduran Supreme Court, organized by the U.S. Agency for International Development, regarding a case that raised issues of first impression under Honduran law. Mr. Cachán is a member of the Pacific Council on International Policy.

Mr. Cachán is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School. Between college and law school, he studied in Spain as a Fulbright Fellow. Prior to beginning private practice, Mr. Cachán served as law clerk to the Honorable Arthur L. Alarcón of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the first Latino appointed to that court.

Mr. Cachán is the son of Cuban exiles and is fluent in Spanish.