Stephen H. Cassidy

As an attorney and executive with extensive experience in the public and private sectors, Stephen has practiced law for over 25 years representing individuals in personal injury and mass torts cases and consumers in class action lawsuits. Stephen has received rating of AV Preeminent from Martindale Hubbell, the highest ranking of professional excellence from a lawyer's peers.

Over the course of his legal career, Stephen has represented consumers in class action lawsuits against major national banks and credit card companies for imposing improper late and overlimit fees and promoting and selling worthless add-on products. Stephen also represented home owners in litigation against the leading title insurance companies in California. Settlements in the cases brought a total of $50 million for consumers, and resulted in industry-wide changes in the providing of escrow services.

Serving as special counsel for the State of California, multiple California counties and the City and County of San Francisco, Stephen investigated a half-century of efforts by the tobacco industry to promote smoking by teenagers as part of the multi-state litigation against the tobacco industry. He deposed senior tobacco marketing executives and succeeded in obtaining the production of documents from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJR) on current marketing programs. The documents produced by RJR included its infamous "Project SCUM" campaign.

Upon the successful conclusion of the historic litigation, Stephen drafted a lengthy letter to California Attorney General Bill Lockyer calling for him to bring an enforcement action against RJR for advertising in magazines with a high teen readership. The Attorney General filed a lawsuit against RJR in 2001. Three years later, a settlement was reached requiring RJR to pay a $17 million fine and cease its advertising in magazines with a teen audience of 15% or more of its readers.

Today, Stephen serves as Of Counsel at the Dolan Law Firm. He directs the firm's marketing efforts and actively participates in the investigation and review of new cases involving serious personal injuries, bicycle, motorcycle and vehicle accidents, employment discrimination and wrongful termination, elder abuse and neglect, and fraud against the government (False Claims Act and whistleblower cases).

Stephen is a frequent speaker on topics related to legal marketing. He served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Consumer Attorneys of California from 2007 to 2015, and remains an active member of the organization. From 2010 through 2014, Stephen held elective office as the Mayor of San Leandro, spearheading the transformation of the city into a new center of innovation in the San Francisco Bay Area