Herbert S. Washer

Herb Washer is the Chair of Cahill’s Executive Committee. For more than three decades, the world’s leading financial firms have turned to Herb when faced with their most formidable and complex legal matters.

Herb has long been recognized as a leading litigator by all of the major legal publications and directories. In its most recent edition, Chambers USA recognized Herb as an Eminent Practitioner for Securities Litigation in New York, the only attorney to receive that distinction. In 2024, Herb was named to Forbes’ inaugural “America’s Top 200 Lawyers” list, and was one of only two lawyers on the list who were recognized in the field of Securities Litigation. Herb has also been named to The Legal 500’s “Hall of Fame” for Securities Litigation, and has been awarded top honors in other publications, including Euromoney’s Benchmark Litigation and Lawdragon, among others. In 2023, he was named a winner of the “Litigator of the Year” award by The American Lawyer and was named to The National Law Journal’s list of Class Action/Mass Tort Litigation Trailblazers for his role as lead trial counsel for the Cahill team that achieved a complete victory for Credit Suisse, following an eight-day jury trial in federal court in the Southern District of New York, defeating allegations of Credit Suisse’s participation in a conspiracy to manipulate the global foreign exchange market. Herb was also recognized by The American Lawyer in 2022 as Litigator of the Week for his Credit Suisse victory. Law360 named Herb and his litigation department Securities Practice Group of the Year in 2019, while noting the team earned consecutive wins “against multiple sets of sophisticated and experienced plaintiff-side counsel.” Law360 concluded that “[t]ackling antitrust and securities actions that contemplate entire markets, like the Libor and subsovereign government bond cases, has become a specialty.”

Publications and clients have described Herb as a “go-to litigator for top financial clients,” “a gifted advocate,” “incredibly thoughtful and measured, with deep experience representing the banks," “an amazing presence – he makes people feel he’s calm and in control,” “outstanding,” “an excellent lawyer” who is “well versed in market manipulation matters, as well as wider class actions and arbitrations,” and a “star partner who has achieved a string of favourable results,” earning him client praise for “pursuing some unique theories and clearing many cases with novel thinking.” “Some of the largest and most established companies in the world also place their trust in the firm,” reports GIR when describing matters led by Herb and the litigation team he oversees. The Legal 500 writes, “Of the top-tier firms,” in securities litigation, Cahill’s focus “on high-value and precedent-setting disputes for clients in the financial services sector places it among the market leaders in this space.”

Areas of focus

Herb concentrates his practice on defending leading financial institutions, financial technology companies, and cyptocurrency exchanges, in complex securities, antitrust, and commercial matters involving civil, regulatory and criminal proceedings. More specifically, he represents both institutions and individuals in federal and state courts, before regulatory bodies and in internal investigations in matters concerning securities and commodities trading, derivative products, market manipulation, banking, price-fixing, M&A transactions, commercial disputes, and accounting fraud.

Herb represented Merrill Lynch in all of its criminal, regulatory and civil matters arising out of the collapse of Enron. More recently, he has represented Credit Suisse in matters related to Archegos, Greensill and many other “bet the company” situations.

Herb currently serves as lead counsel representing major financial institutions in numerous high-profile matters, including civil, criminal and/or regulatory enforcement actions involving the setting of LIBOR and other reference rates, alleged manipulation of the markets for FX and various government bonds, the development of exchange trading for OTC products, and alleged wrongdoing in the CDO, ARS and CDS markets.

Herb is an author and frequent lecturer on securities litigation and government investigations.