- Margaret M. Cassidy, AttorneyBio
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Margaret M. Cassidy, Attorney Bio
Margaret M. Cassidy founded Cassidy Law PLLC. Ms. Cassidy advises organizations receiving contracts, cooperative agreements, and grants from the federal government to develop and execute effective ethics and compliance programs. Ms. Cassidy advises clients on merger and acquisition risks related to federal government contracting, exporting, third party management, and anticorruption. Ms. Cassidy also conducts internal investigations and advises clients on government investigations and audits on matters related to federal government contracting, corruption, fraud, international trade, the False Claims Act, ethics, and national security.
Margaret serves on the American Bar Association (ABA) Business Law Section Publication Board, is an editor for the Business Law Section’s Monthly Journal and is on the D.C. Board of Professional Responsibility. She is immediate past chair of the American Bar Association Business Law Section Corporate Compliance and Business Crimes Committee, served as the co-chair of the D.C. Bar’s Law Practice Management Community, and is the former Global Issues Forum co-chair for the Association of Corporate Counsel National Capital Region Chapter. In 2019, the ABA named Margaret as one of eleven lawyers that inspire for her work in founding and managing the League of Women Lawyers, a group of women lawyer entrepreneurs who either started or run a small law firm.
Prior to launching Cassidy Law, Margaret held positions as PricewaterhouseCoopers’ government ethics and compliance leader and GE Transportation’s global ethics & compliance counsel. As a state and local prosecutor, she investigated and tried countless cases involving fraud and public corruption as well as a variety of other crimes.
Margaret has developed and conducted seminars and trainings for organizations, business executives, and employees, as well as organizations such as the ABA, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the D.C. Small Business Administration, the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Association of Corporate Counsel National Capital Region Chapter, and Today’s General Counsel. Among the topics on which she presents are conducting investigations, implementing ethics and compliance programs, exporting, anticorruption, the False Claims Act, government procurement, political activity, and ethically interacting with governments. Margaret is an editor and author of The Lawyers’ Corporate Social Responsibility Deskbook, published by the ABA Business Law Section.
Margaret is a member of the District of Columbia, Ohio (inactive), Pennsylvania (inactive), New York (inactive) and Virginia bars. She earned a BS in finance from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and, after graduating from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, clerked with the Ohio Court of Appeals.
- Erin C. Creahan, AttorneyBio
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Erin C. Creahan, Attorney Bio
Erin C. Creahan is assistant general counsel for Compassion International, a large international nonprofit focused on bringing children out of poverty. She is a compliance, data privacy, and enterprise risk professional with twenty years of experience. Erin started her career as a litigation associate at a large international law firm, and has since held in-house positions in several industries, including energy, CPG, and manufacturing. She has built compliance programs in several roles.
Erin lives outside Cleveland, Ohio.
- Mary Marks, AttorneyBio
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Mary Marks, Attorney Bio
Mary Marks, senior counsel to Cassidy Law PLLC, brings over fifteen years of practical experience advising organizational clients on compliance and regulatory matters. Her practice focuses on compliance program development, export controls and sanctions, CFIUS reviews and foreign investment compliance, anti-corruption compliance, information security and data privacy, AI governance, and third-party and supply chain risk management.
Although her practice is oriented toward complex, technical regulations, Mary understands her value as an attorney is supporting a client in turning a legal challenge into opportunities for growth and ensuring that clients have compliance controls to mitigate risk while building efficiencies. As part of this, Mary brings creativity, clarity, and a passion for delivering actionable solutions while building trust with her clients.
Prior to rejoining Cassidy Law, Mary held leadership roles at MasterBrand and Coherent Corp., where she led enterprise-wide ethics, trade, and regulatory compliance programs. Earlier in her career, she practiced with the international trade and global business group at Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC in Washington, D.C.
In addition to her experience in-house and in private practice, Mary brings experience from the government having served as assistant general counsel at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, where she advised the FBI on operational and compliance-related matters.
Mary earned her BA from Penn State University, a JD from Duquesne University’s Kline School of Law, and an MPP from the University of Chicago. She is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, dog, and two cats. When she’s not practicing law, you can find her traveling, hiking, painting, and spending time with family and friends.
- Joan E. Meyer, AttorneyBio
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Joan E. Meyer, Attorney Bio
Joan E. Meyer, counsel to Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP, has more than thirty years’ experience handling complex criminal and civil litigation, primarily domestic and international white-collar defense for companies involving anticorruption, financial fraud, government contracting, false claims, securities and commodities violations, and trade compliance matters. She has tried scores of cases at the state and federal levels and handled more than forty appeals in state and federal appeals courts. Joan also conducts domestic and international internal investigations for corporate clients to determine whether legal and regulatory violations were committed and defends companies and individuals in negotiation and litigation with federal government agencies.
With her extensive experience in global corporate compliance, Joan routinely advises senior management and boards of directors on best practices for compliance with United States and international legal requirements and regulations and the consequences of law enforcement inquiries, including the development of a defense strategy, government disclosures, disciplinary actions, and the enhancement of compliance policies and procedures and internal controls. She has handled matters around the world for companies in the manufacturing, life sciences, mining and extraction, financial services, transportation, and logistics sectors and assisted them in conducting global risk assessments and audits, developing and implementing compliance programs, creating remediation plans, and developing emergency/crisis management strategies. Joan has been recognized multiple times by the National Association of Corporate Directors as one of the most influential professionals in corporate governance.
Before joining Benesch, Joan was a partner at Baker McKenzie for more than ten years, where she served as practice chair of the Compliance & Investigations group and as the Washington, D.C. office litigation chair. She also served as practice chair of Thompson Hine’s Government Enforcement, Internal Investigations and White-Collar Defense Group.
Before entering private practice, she held several high-profile government positions, including serving as senior counsel to the Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, where she advised on complex criminal litigation, including corporate frauds such as falsely inflating revenue, insider trading and accounting schemes, and managed the operation of the president’s Corporate Fraud Task Force. She also developed the Department’s corporate charging and monitorship policies. Joan also held a variety of positions in the United States Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Michigan, including first assistant and chief of the Criminal Division, and she was a criminal prosecutor in Chicago at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Additionally, she worked as a senior trial attorney in the Division of Enforcement at the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where she prosecuted investment frauds involving the commodity futures markets.
Joan earned her JD from Loyola University, and a BA from Creighton University.
