Niall McCarthy

Burlingame

Litigation

Niall P. McCarthy is a name partner at the 35-attorney plaintiff-side Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP firm. He's been there since 1992, specializing in business and tort litigation.

A Democrat, he's chair of the Northern District judicial evaluation commission for Sen. Alex Padilla; he also serves on Gov. Gavin Newsom's Bay Area judicial selection advisory committee.

"We've produced some high-quality, diverse judges for the Bay Area, and I spend a good deal of time reviewing resumes," McCarthy said. "It can be arduous. For every slot, there are 10 to 20 excellent candidates."

He mentioned as recent appointments he'd endorsed, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin of San Francisco, an immigrant rights lawyer who replaced Judge Jeffrey S. White; and U.S. District Judge P. Casey Pitts of San Jose, a gay man and former Judge Stephen R. Reinhardt clerk who replaced Judge Lucy H. Koh.

In a new elder abuse matter, McCarthy represents the survivors of Trudy Maxwell, a 93-year-old woman with dementia who died after she was accidentally served toxic cleaning fluid instead of fruit juice at a senior assisted living and memory care facility in San Mateo. It was "the equivalent of serving her Drano," and employees "waited over 30 excruciating minutes before calling 911," McCarthy wrote in a wrongful death complaint. Maxwell et al., v. Atria Management Co. LLC et al., 22-civ-03985 (S. Mateo Co. Super. Ct., filed Sept. 29, 2022).

Broadening the complaint, McCarthy cataloged additional neglect, including falls that caused hip fractures, that Maxwell had suffered at home. And he noted that four days earlier, a similar incident occurred at an Atria facility in Walnut Creek, causing the death of an elderly man.

"Numerous red flags were ignored," McCarthy said. "This case should result in a tremendous amount of reform in the senior care world."

So far, in the case, McCarthy has defeated a defense motion to arbitrate. "That's a major victory," he said.

McCarthy won a 2023 Daily Journal CLAY award after he successfully represented California dairy farmers by turning back a corporate campaign to end a long-standing milk pricing, quota and income pooling system that equalizes revenue for producers. He and colleague Andrew F. Kirtley won all three cases in the sprawling litigation, restoring more than $500 million in quota asset value to hundreds of dairies. Stop QIP Tax Coalition v. California Dept. of Food & Agriculture et al., 34-2020-80003474 (Sacramento Co. Super. Ct., filed Dec. 4, 2019).

"The other side filed two unsuccessful appeals. Our side won," McCarthy said. "It's over and done."

-John Roemer