#CovVeterans Spotlight Series: Kate Cahoy and Irina Danescu
November 30, 2020
Kate Cahoy is a partner in the Palo Alto office. Her husband served in the Army for five years and she is a regular contributor to the firm’s veterans pro bono efforts.
She specializes in defending clients in complex, high-stakes disputes including class action and antitrust cases. Her practice includes privacy, antitrust, and consumer protection matters in the technology, entertainment, financial services, and food, drug, and cosmetic industries, among others, and she has significant experience litigating cases brought under California’s Section 17200 and other consumer protection, competition, and privacy laws.
How did you get involved with Veterans Pro Bono work at Covington?
I became very involved with veterans issues and legal services work when I joined the inaugural semester of my law school's veterans clinic my 2L year. When I joined Covington, I wanted to find a way to continue contributing to the development of this important area of law and so naturally gravitated toward the veterans pro bono work that Covington was doing. Our wonderful pro bono coordinators are excellent at helping people find pro bono work that fits their interests and skill sets, and they helped me keep an eye out for projects to which I could contribute.
How has your experience as a military spouse contributed to your career?
It definitely helped me learn to be resilient, adaptable, and to try to make the best out of a situation I often couldn't control. There were lots of moves, last-minute changes in plan, times apart, and stressful situations, and learning to adjust to and stay positive in the face of that were good life lessons that I find myself applying in many different contexts now. Overall, though, it was a very humbling experience in seeing firsthand how many service members and their families set aside their own individual interests, comfort, and wellbeing in service of the country.
What advice would you have for your younger self starting out in the legal profession?
Never identify a problem without proposing a solution. Law school and the bar exam teach us to be great issue spotters, which definitely is a helpful and important skill as a practicing lawyer. But it took me a while to learn that you can add much more value by proposing ways to solve the problems, not just by identifying them. Even if you aren't always right, taking that next step in proposing solutions helps demonstrate and hone critical thinking skills and judgment and demonstrates your engagement in the issues at hand.
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Irina Danescu is an associate in the Washington office. Her husband, Capt. Andrew Cady, is an operations research analyst in the U.S. Air Force.
Ms. Danescu recently received her law degree from the University of Virginia, where she was on the editorial board of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. She was a summer associate at Covington in 2019. Prior to law school, Irina was a research assistant at RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, CA. She received her undergraduate degree from Duke in 2014
How has your experience as a military spouse contributed to your career?
Being a military spouse has taught me both flexibility and the power of a plan. Four years ago, when I was considering law school and my then-boyfriend was gearing up for his next assignment, we drew up a timeline of how our next four years could look and where we hoped to be at the end of them. We acknowledged that the plan included factors outside of our control -- where the Air Force would move him, where I would find a job -- but having an end state in mind helped keep us focused and gave us a light at the end of the almost three years we would be living several states apart. As a law student looking towards the start of my legal career, the number of choices and potential paths sometimes seemed overwhelming. Having a reason to act decisively has been a huge asset in these past years.
On the substantive side, my husband and I met in part because we had similar interests professionally. We both started work at a think tank, focusing on national security issues. Having a shared understanding of each other's work has allowed us to be great sounding boards and strong support systems for each other as we have navigated our early careers. It has also allowed me to straddle the line between the military and civilian worlds, including giving me an opportunity to spend one semester during law school working full time in the legal office at the Air Force base that he was assigned to. Having visibility into both worlds has made these years that much more interesting.
What was it about Covington that drew you to the firm?
One of the lessons of being a military spouse is that it is difficult to succeed without the support of understanding people who are willing to help. The summer associate and junior associate paths at major law firms appear inflexible - a system too big to make exceptions for one person. It was incredibly meaningful for me, then, that everyone I spoke to at Covington seemed more than willing to work with me, no matter what my uncertain future held. Knowing that Covington has so many connections to the military, through colleagues that are active duty, in the reserves, veterans, or military families, was a source of confidence that I could begin my career in an environment that understood my situation and in which my husband and I would both find support.
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