WILLIAM F. CAVANAUGH, Jr.

WILLIAM F. Cavanaugh, Jr. is a senior litigation partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler in New York. He served as co-chair of the firm from 2007-‘17. His areas of concentration include antitrust, intellectual property and commercial litigation.

Cavanaugh has served as national and trial counsel in several large multiparty antitrust, fraud and consumer protection litigations in federal and state courts across the U.S. brought by private plaintiffs and state attorneys general. His clients include major pharmaceutical, medical device and financial services companies.

Cavanaugh’s trial experience includes securing defense verdicts in a multi-billion dollar antitrust class action, civil fraud class actions, and representing a plaintiff medical device manufacturer in back-to-back jury verdicts of $325 million and $271 million in patent infringement cases against two competitors.

Cavanaugh served as deputy assistant attorney general of the U.S. for Civil Enforcement in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice in the beginning of the Obama administration.

Cavanaugh is an elected fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

He was recognized as one of the Top 10 Practitioners nationally in the area of Antitrust in Benchmark Litigation’s 2017 guide, and was named the 2015 Litigation Antitrust Lawyer of the Year in New York by The Best Lawyers in America. He is also recognized by Chambers USA and Who’s Who Legal.

Cavanaugh earned a BS, magna cum laude, from St. John’s University, and a JD from St. John’s University School of Law.

Cavanaugh traces his Irish roots two generations back to Co. Cork through his Kavanagh, O’Connor, Kelley and Doherty relations. He and his wife have five children: William, Christopher, Meghan, Kerry and Mara.