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Richard is a trial lawyer, arbitrator and mediator, and advisor.
Richard Cassidy provides advice and advocacy for clients with personal injury claims, with employment law issues, and other cases that involve civil litigation or potential civil litigation.
One of the founders of Hoff Curtis, he has more than 30 years’ experience with the practice of law in Vermont. He firmly believes that the best representation and advice comes from the most objective perspective that a legal professional can attain. Richard has represented all sides in many kinds of disputes: plaintiffs and defendants, employers and employees, injured parties and insurance companies. He believes that the breadth of his experience benefits all of his clients.
For many years, he represented insurance companies and their insured’s in personal injury cases, but his practice in personal injury cases is now limited to injured persons.
He has significant experience with litigation and alternative dispute resolution involving higher education, public education, health care, and manufacturing. His clients have included college students, faculty, and administrators as well as individuals, businesses, governmental agencies, and not-for-profit entities. For many years, he represented labor unions, and he now represents individuals or employers both within and outside of collective bargaining relationships. Many of his individual clients in employment law cases begin work with him under Limited Scope Representation Agreements.
He advocates for individuals, businesses and governments in a broad range of civil litigation, including in construction cases, cases under the Uniform Commercial Code, and contract and business tort claims.
He also serves as general counsel to the Selenium-Tellurium Development Association, Inc., an international trade association, with members from around the world.
In addition to his work as a litigator and counselor, he has served as a mediator and arbitrator and is a member of the Panel of Early Neutral Evaluators for the United States District Court for the District of Vermont and the early neutral evaluation panels for the Vermont Environmental Court and a Vermont Superior Courts.
Vermont Governor Howard Dean appointed Richard was as a Vermont Member of the Uniform Law Commission in 1994. He 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. He is a former Secretary of the Commission, a member of its Executive Committee, serves on its Committee on Liaison with the American Bar Association, and Chairs its Scope and Program Committee.
Richard represents the Vermont Bar Association in the American Bar Association House of Delegates and is the Chair of the Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services. He served as a member of the ABA Board Governors from 2005 through 2008.
He was a long-time member of the Vermont Board of Bar Examiners serving as both chair of the board and examiner until 2004.
He is a director and a former President of the American Counsel Association.
Richard is a frequent writer and speaker on legal topics. He has 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.
He has 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.) He is the 2013 “Best Lawyer of the Year” for Employment Law – Individuals.
Richard is a 1975 graduate of the University of Vermont and a 1978 graduate of Albany Law School. He 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, Richard has been very active as a member of the South Burlington School Board and has chaired the Board since 2007.
He also served as Chair of the Vermont Solid Waste and Air Quality Variance Board from 1993 through 2005.
In 2012, he was elected by the Vermont Democratic Party as a member of the Democratic National Committee.
He serves as an Acting Judge on regular basis in the Small Claims Division of the Chittenden Superior Court.
When he's not practicing law or in a committee meeting, Richard enjoys reading, walking Baxter the dog, skiing, swimming, and rowing his Adirondack Guide Boat on Lake Champlain.
Verdicts and Settlements
Richard Cassidy has obtained many millions of dollars of settlements and verdicts for his clients.
The punitive damage portion of this $2.3 million dollar verdict in a hazing case, Brueckner v. Norwich University, 169 Vt. 118; 730 A.2d 1086 (1999), was reversed by a split decision on appeal, but the award of compensatory damages was upheld and established the important legal proposition that a University may be responsible for the acts of hazing committed by student leaders authorized to orient and indoctrinate first-year students. W. Kaplin and B. Lee, The Law of Higher Education, at 312. (4th Edition, Jossey-Bass (2007)).
Other notable results include the recovery of many hundreds of thousands of dollars in a number of employment discrimination cases, a $700,000 settlement in a slip and fall case, and this year, a $3.6 million dollar settlement in a combined employment/commercial dispute.
Reported Cases
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