About the Firm

Our founder, George J. Cahill, Jr., is a fourth-generation railroad worker. During his high school days George began working summer jobs on the New Haven Railroad as a clerk, trackman, laborer, and caboose inspector. In 1968 he volunteered for the United States Marine Corps and was trained at Parris Island and Cape LeJune. From 1968 to 1970 George served as a corporal in the Marines, including a tour of duty in the Republic of Vietnam as a combat rifleman where he was awarded a Purple Heart. After the Marines George returned to work full-time on the Railroad while also attending college and law school.

During his college years, George worked for the Penn Central in the New Haven crew callers office, as a block operator at Devon Tower, a brakeman at the New Haven East Class Yard, a skate man at the New Haven Eastbound Hump, a road freight brakeman on jobs to Selkirk and Maybrook, and then as a passenger trainman on the New Haven Shoreline Division. In his spare time George was an amateur boxer with over 60 fights in AAU matches and in the New York City and Massachusetts Golden Glove tournaments. In 1973 he was selected for a national AAU team as a middleweight.

While in law school George continued working on the Railroad. He worked on a local freight at night from Framingham to Lowell and then started working as a passenger trainman on the Franklin and Needham branches during the weekdays. On the weekends he also worked as a Conductor on the mainline from South Station to Penn Station in New York City. During George’s first years as an attorney from 1977 to 1978, he continued working as a passenger conductor on Conrail's Metropolitan Region between New Haven and Grand Central Terminal.

George’s career as a railroad employee ended on November 9, 1978. That was the day he won a federal court FELA (Federal Employers' Liability Act) jury verdict of $600,000 against Conrail on behalf of a fellow Conrail conductor. That night George worked his usual conductor job between New Haven and GCT with his co-workers celebrating his great victory (the $600,000 verdict was record-breaking at that time). The next morning he received a call from Conrail's General Superintendent informing George that he was fired for "disloyalty." The Superintendent told George that Conrail's top managers in Philadelphia were almost more upset about the fact he earned his $60 in conductor wages during that night of celebration than the $600,000 verdict Conrail would have to pay.

In his first two years as a practicing attorney George had a general practice. However, after that 1978 verdict and the establishment of the firm Cahill & Goetsch with his partner Charlie Goetsch, the firm has concentrated on protecting the rights of railroad workers. George and Charlie are the same age, born one month apart in New Haven, and have been partners for over 25 years. After graduating with honors from Brown University and Harvard Law School, Charlie clerked for a United States District Court judge in the District of Connecticut, where he was first exposed to FELA (Federal Employers' Liability Act) litigation. He then clerked for a federal appellate judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and one year later joined George as a partner. Over the years their personalities and backgrounds have been a perfect fit, and they relish joining forces to battle the railroads on behalf of their clients. Charlie has tried scores of railroad injury jury cases and argued numerous appeals before the Second Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.

Attorney John G. DiPersia practiced with George and Charlie for 15 years, and retired in 1997. Click here to read an article about the firm. In 2001, Attorney Ira C. Maurer joined George and Charlie as the supervising partner for the White Plains, New York office. Ira has extensive experience in handling FELA and other personal injury cases in New York and New Jersey. In 2000 Scott Perry joined as a junior partner in the New Haven office.

Since the late 1970s the firm has represented over a dozen different rail labor unions and thousands of railroad workers in all the various railroad crafts. Firm lawyers have handled injury cases in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. Some of our best known cases include the Great Train Seizure, the landmark case of Lenfest v B&M RR concerning the Federal Railroad Safey Act, and the Snowmen of Grand Central Terminal.