Attorney Profile

Patrick S. Cassidy is a 1966 graduate of Madonna High School in Weirton, West Virginia, and obtained his B.A. degree in philosophy from Wheeling College in 1970. He received a Juris Doctor degree in 1973 from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Cassidy was a principal in the firm Cassidy, Cogan, Shapell & Voegelin, L.C. (started as O’Brien & O’Brien in 1903) for nearly 50 years, where he has historically represented employees, unions and other individuals in Civil Rights Matters, Employment Claims, Disability Claims, and other issues related to their workplace or professional careers. He has also represented clients in Personal Injury Claims, Disputes against Insurance Companies, Banks, Health Plans, and Pension Funds, as well as Corruption and Whistleblower Claims against government officials and entities, as well as private employers. 

As of January 1, 2023, Mr. Cassidy has been engaging in the solo practice of law and consulting at CASSIDY LAW, P.L.L.C. Mr. Cassidy is licensed to practice law in Washington, D.C., Maryland, West Virginia and Ohio, and is a member of the West Virginia State Bar Association, the Ohio State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the National and West Virginia Employment Law Associations, the Ohio County Bar Association, the Belmont County Bar Association, the American Bar Association Committee on International Labor Law, and the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee.

Mr. Cassidy has consistently received the highest peer evaluation from Martindale-Hubbell (AV Preeminent Rating), and has been a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers since 1999.

Mr. Cassidy has also been active in community affairs, and served as Co-Chairman of the Wheeling National Heritage Area Task Force, and was the first Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Wheeling National Heritage Area Corporation, serving in both capacities for a total of ten years during which time WNHAC designed and developed the Wheeling Artisan Center, the Robert C. Byrd Intermodal Transportation Center, and Wheeling’s Heritage Port. He has served on a number of other community boards, and currently serves as the IAC Chair of the Board of Directors of the West Virginia Humanities Council.

He is also co-founder with his wife, Mary Ellen Cassidy, and President of the Wheeling Academy of Law and Science Foundation (http://walswheeling.org) of Wheeling, West Virginia. In that capacity, he has been involved in various educational presentations for lawyers and the public on many aspects of the law; has written extensively on issues of Economic Justice and the Rule of Law, and served as Visiting Professor at the Brest State University in Brest, Belarus, and the Immanuel Kant University in Kaliningrad, Russia, lecturing on issues of Employment Law, Economic Justice, and the Rule of Law.

Mr. Cassidy also wrote, produced, and directed an original music drama (with music by collaborator Dr. Geoffrey Schoolar of Houston, Texas) entitled “The Good European,” which had its world premiere in Wheeling, West Virginia on August 25, 2000, and is based on the last day of the life of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. He has also published a novel, “la cerca,” which is a fictional account of the philosophical adventure leading up to the creation of “The Good European.”