Manuel Cachán is a trial lawyer who has served as lead counsel on numerous significant and high-profile jury trials in the most challenging jurisdictions throughout the United States.
Lawdragon Honors
| Honor | Year | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Litigators | 2026 | Global Litigation |
| The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America | 2026 | Litigation, Mass Torts |
| The 2026 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America | 2026 | Complex Litigation, inc. Product Liability, Class Action, Financial |
| The 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America | 2025 | Complex Litigation, inc. Product Liability, Class Action, Financial |
| The 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America | 2024 | Complex Litigation, inc. Product Liability, Class Action, Financial |
Cachán has represented Fortune 500 companies before federal and state courts in jury trials across the nation in breach-of-contract litigations, banking actions, product liability lawsuits and professional malpractice cases. His representations (including those prior to joining Skadden) have included:
- Monsanto Company in securing a unanimous defense verdict (reached after three hours of deliberations) following a seven-week jury trial in Cook County, Illinois, against claims brought by four plaintiffs who alleged that they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma after being exposed to Monsanto’s Roundup weed killer and fire-retardant additives known as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) made by the company.
- Monsanto in a nine-week jury trial in Seattle, Washington, featuring dozens of expert witnesses and 22 plaintiffs asserting individualized claims. The plaintiffs alleged that they developed a wide variety of physical and cognitive ailments after allegedly being exposed to Monsanto’s PCBs. After several days of jury deliberations, Monsanto and the plaintiffs reached a mutually agreeable settlement
- Monsanto in a product liability lawsuit in St. Louis, Missouri, involving its Roundup product. Before the jury was empaneled, but following the argument of motions to exclude the plaintiffs’ key expert witnesses, the plaintiffs voluntarily and unilaterally dismissed their lawsuit
- Johnson & Johnson (J&J) in multiple trials regarding its talc-based products, including:
- in St. Louis, where the jury returned a complete defense verdict on all claims and awarded no damages. The verdict was ranked second on CVN’s list of the Top 10 Most Impressive Defense Verdicts of 2017, and The American Lawyer recognized Mr. Cachán as a Litigator of the Week
- the first-ever California trial relating to J&J’s talc-based Baby Powder and Shower-to-Shower products and their alleged link to ovarian cancer. After trial, the court entered judgment notwithstanding the verdict for the J&J defendants and, in the alternative, granted J&J’s motion for a new trial
- NBCUniversal:
- and KNBC-TV in a one-month jury trial in Los Angeles Superior Court involving claims of age discrimination brought by a journalist formerly employed by the station
- in connection with claims by actor Gabrielle Union over workplace issues on the competition talent show “America’s Got Talent”
- in an arbitration involving profits from a series of popular made-for-television movies
- Dick Clark Productions in a bench trial in federal court alleging breach of a production agreement, brought by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association over rights to the Golden Globes awards show
Cachán is active in the legal community. He is a board member of Public Counsel, the largest provider of pro bono legal services in the United States. He also is an honorary trustee of the Mexican-American Bar Foundation, which provides scholarship assistance to Latino law students. Cachán previously served as a member of the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation of the State Bar of California, which evaluates all candidates under consideration for a judicial appointment by the governor. He is past president of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers in Los Angeles. Cachán is the son of Cuban exiles and is fluent in Spanish.