Niall McCarthy, a partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, will be sworn in Saturday as the 50th president of the Consumer Attorneys of California, which is holding its annual convention in San Francisco. The son of former Lt. Gov. Leo McCarthy, he takes the helm at a difficult time for the state’s trial lawyers. Recent decisions in Howell v. Hamilton Meats, Concepcion v. AT&T Mobility and Dukes v. Walmart have the plaintiff bar reassessing its legal footing. A bloc of moderate Democrats has stymied the CAOC’s agenda in the state Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown remains an unknown quantity. McCarthy recently sat down with The Recorder to talk a bit about his past and what he’s expecting in the CAOC’s future.
Q: You come from a famous family. Was there any doubt growing up that you would go into the law and politics?
