Cheryl Forchilli

Strategic thinker. Justice seeker.

Now based in NYC, Cheryl Forchilli grew up in North Florida where her Navy family settled after postings in New Orleans and Hawaii. A passionate activist in her youth, she studied political science and economics at the University of Texas at Austin with a plan to run for office, believing that government service was the best path to make the biggest difference in real people’s lives. During her first job in the Florida House of Representatives, she realized that everyone getting to actually make policy had one thing she didn’t…a law degree. She graduated from the University of Florida College of Law in 2001 and has since been practicing in a wide variety of specialties. 

Her legal career began in the litigation department of the D.C. office of Jones Day, one of the world’s largest law firms, after which she returned home to Florida for a judicial clerkship. As a sole practitioner for more than a decade, she focused on elections law and campaign finance compliance and was appointed by the governor to the Florida Commission on Ethics, where she served for more than four years and was elected chair by her colleagues. After obtaining her Italian citizenship by descent in 2017, her practice now includes assisting other Americans in obtaining EU citizenship by descent.

Alongside her legal work, she also served as the founding president and executive director of a professional theatre in St. Petersburg, where she developed a deep appreciation for the power of storytelling to connect us to one another. Like the rest of the team, Cheryl is passionate about wine and travel and relishes her role in supporting efforts to tell the stories of these amazing wines and the people and places who create them.

In her free time, Cheryl can most likely be found gathered around a table with friends for a delicious meal or intense board game, traveling to far flung destinations, or engrossed in a novel. She splits time between New York and Arpino, Italy where she and her partner Patrick have embarked on the adventure of renovating a house in a 400-year-old wool mill.