Cathleen Liacos

Career Overview

Cathleen Liacos’ diverse practice focuses on complex civil litigation matters in the areas of professional malpractice, employment, and business disputes. She has represented plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of matters arising in both state and federal court.

Recognized as a “Rising Star” in Massachusetts by Super Lawyers magazine each year from 2019 through 2023, Cathleen prioritizes client advocacy and handles every stage of the litigation process with exceptional care. She has successfully mediated, settled and tried legal malpractice and commercial disputes as well as personal injury and medical malpractice cases on behalf of clients who have sustained catastrophic injuries.

An active member of the Boston Bar Association, Cathleen has taken on multiple leadership roles with the organization. She is currently a member of the Senior Associates Forum Steering Committee. In 2021, she was named to BBA’s Public Interest Leadership Program, a selective program dedicated to promoting civic engagement and public service by advancing the leadership role of lawyers in service to their community, their profession, and the Commonwealth. She also served on the BBA’s Casino Night Committee, supporting an annual fundraising event to benefit youth programming through the Boston Bar Foundation. Cathleen is a also member of the Women’s Bar Association and the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys.

Proud to be a double Eagle, Cathleen attended Boston College and Boston College Law School. As an undergrad, she earned her B.A. in economics and served as president of both the undergraduate law society and a human rights group on campus. While at BC Law School, Cathleen was selected to a National Moot Court team and was a teaching assistant for the first-year course, Legal Reasoning, Research and Writing. Cathleen also provided pro bono legal services to low-income clients in housing and family matters at the Boston College Legal Assistance Bureau.

Notable Cases

• Won a $5,000,000 settlement in a personal injury matter on behalf of a 55-year-old woman who sustained life threatening injuries, including a traumatic brain injury, and who will require lifelong medical care.
• Won a $4,443,486.07 verdict where patient complained of a painful and growing lump in her right breast but her primary care physicians failed to timely refer for imaging or appropriate medical treatment with a specialist to rule out breast cancer, allowing her undiagnosed cancer to metastasize and cause her death. Claims were brought against the United States under the Federal Tort Claim Act as the defendants were federal employees.
• Obtained a $2,000,000 settlement at mediation in wrongful death case where cardiologist failed to send a twenty-five-year-old patient abnormal echocardiogram results indicative of cardiomyopathy (a potentially fatal cardiac condition), and patient was therefore unaware of cardiac condition, was not treated or monitored by a cardiologist, and died as a result of his cardiac condition at twenty-nine years old.
• Achieved a victory at the summary judgment stage on behalf of a Massachusetts municipality in an employment discrimination matter.

Honors and Awards

• Named by Super Lawyers as a Massachusetts Rising Star for Civil Litigation: Plaintiff, 2019-2024.
• Selected to Boston Bar Association’s 2021 Public Interest Leadership Program

Publications and Lectures

• Speaker and Moderator, Increasing Visibility as a New Lawyer, Boston Bar Association 2023
• Speaker, Practicing with Professionalism, Boston Bar Association, 2019-2021
• Speaker, Summer Associate Program Series, Boston Bar Association, 2020
• Speaker, Leadership Retreat, Boston Bar Association, 2020
• Presenter, Law Day in the Schools program, Boston Bar Association, 2018-2019

Civic Engagement

• Volunteer and mentor, Big Sister Association of Greater Boston, 2011–present.