Calloway, Dean A.

Ann Hetherwick (“Hether”) Cahill joined Sally & Fitch in 2008 after serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Joseph A. Trainor of the Massachusetts Appeals Court.  She is a graduate of Skidmore College (B.A., philosophy/government, 2000) and Suffolk University Law School (J.D., 2006).  While at Suffolk, Attorney Cahill was a member of the Suffolk Transnational Law Review, received the Best Brief Award in her Legal Practice Skills Course, served as a student prosecutor at the East Boston District Attorney’s Office, and interned in the civil division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston.  She worked as a litigation legal assistant at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York prior to law school and in Boston during law school.

Attorney Cahill’s litigation practice focuses on probate and trust litigation, family law, civil and criminal appeals, and business litigation.  In the probate litigation matters, she has represented clients in will contests, actions involving the interpretation of trusts, and trustee removal actions.  She has represented fiduciaries and beneficiaries regarding the proper administration of trusts and estates.  Matters representative of Attorney Cahill’s probate practice include: 

• obtaining dismissal of a petition to remove our client as trustee of a substantial trust;

• winning summary judgment on behalf of a client involved in a will contest, resulting in the Probate Court striking the objector’s affidavit of objections and appointing our client Executor of the Estate; and

• obtaining settlement of cross-petitions for the appointment of an administrator for an estate.

As a former law clerk on the Massachusetts Appeals Court, Attorney Cahill utilizes her appellate experience and research and writing skills to represent both appellants and appellees.  She recently became a member of the post-conviction panel of the Committee for Public Counsel Services to represent criminal defendants on appeal.  Attorney Cahill’s appellate experience includes:

• at the Supreme Judicial Court, winning an appeal on behalf of a client, a corporate board member, where no evidence supported the trial judge’s finding that he acted with “actual malice,” the heightened burden a plaintiff must prove in asserting a claim of tortious interference with contractual relations.  The Supreme Judicial Court vacated the judgment, as well as all related awards of damages and attorney’s fees, in favor of our client; and

• at the Massachusetts Appeals Court, obtaining an affirmance of a trial court order denying the defendant’s motion to set aside a multi-million dollar judgment, which had been awarded to our client.

In 2009, 2011 and 2012, Attorney Cahill was named a “Rising Star” in the “Massachusetts Super Lawyers” list published by the Thomson Reuters rating service in Boston Magazine.  The Rising Star award is limited to 2.5% of lawyers in Massachusetts under the age of 40 who have been practicing for less than 10 years. 

Her publications include:

• Case Comment: “Abolishing the Distinction Between Natural and Unnatural Accumulations of Snow and Ice When Determining Negligence of Property Owner, Papadopoulos v. Target Corp., 457 Mass. 368 (2010),” 94 Mass. L. Rev. No. 1, 20 (Sept. 2011);

• Book Review:  “When Law Fails: Making Sense of Miscarriages of Justice,” 93 Mass. L. Rev. No. 1, 261 (June 2010) (reviewing Charles J. Ogletree and Austin Sarat);

• Case Comment:  “Combining Non-Consecutive Periods of Employment to Qualify as ‘Eligible Employee’ under the Family Medical Leave Act, Rucker v. Lee Holding Co., 471 F.3d 6 (1st Cir. 2006),” 91 Mass. L. Rev. No. 4, 182 (Jan. 2009);

• Article:  “Admissibility of Hearsay Statements to Police: Davis v. Washington and Hammon v. Indiana,” 50 Boston B. J. 17 (Nov./Dec. 2006); and

• Case Comment:  “Constitutional Law—Spies Barred from Enforcing Espionage Agreements with the United States—Tenet v. Doe, 125 S. Ct. 1230 (2005),” 29 Suffolk Transnat’l L. Rev. 371 (Summer 2006).

She is actively involved in the Dana-Farber Leadership Council, the Boston Professionals Club, and representing children pro bono in immigration cases through Kids In Need of Defense (“KIND”).  Attorney Cahill is admitted to the bars of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.   She is also a member of the Massachusetts and Boston Bar Associations.