Dan’s path to becoming a trial lawyer definitely didn’t take the “traditional” route. Originally from Rapid City, SD, with a love for soccer, he was the first person from his high school to be offered an opportunity to play at the Division 1 level. Unfortunately, an injury towards the middle of his freshman year knocked him down to a level he was not able to recover from, and 2 years later, he hung up his cleats. While things worked out for him in the long run, he has never forgotten what it was like to have hopes and dreams dashed due to injury. After college, he became a SCUBA Instructor, picked up his gear, and jumped on a boat to the Cayman Islands where he spent almost 4 years teaching diving and working his way up to earn his civilian United States Coast Guard 50 Ton Master Captain’s License. While in the Cayman Islands he also worked on a number of local conservation projects, which further instilled in him the idea of always finding time to give back to his community. Dan attended law school at Santa Clara University, where he not only served as President of the Student Bar Association, but also lead a group of 25 students to post-Katrina New Orleans, to help that community in the rebuilding process. He has taken his commitment to people and the community to the courtroom, where his results speak for themselves. He takes on the most challenging of cases, often times after other attorneys have stated these cases are “unwinnable.” He has achieved multiple six- and seven-figure results, including one of California’s largest slip/fall verdicts–$2.8 million—in 2016. This verdict was followed-up in 2017 with a $6.8 million verdict on behalf of an injured bicyclist. This is the largest reported personal injury verdict in the history of Santa Cruz County, and was the largest verdict in California in 2017 on behalf of an injured bicyclist. His results have continued into 2018 and 2019, where he consistently holds insurance companies accountable for full justice at trial, often to the tune of many, many times higher than the final pre-trial offers. Dan has been recognized by his peers, having been nominated by the Santa Clara County Trial Lawyers Association Trial Lawyer of the Year each of the past 3 years. He has also been recognized by SuperLawyers as a Rising Star, and in 2018 as a SuperLawyer. In 2018 he was also selected as a National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyer. He travels the country with Nick and Courtney Rowley as an instructor with Trial By Human, always committed to helping other lawyers achieve complete justice for their clients. Dan is based out of CZR’s Northern California office, and when he isn’t in the courtroom, he enjoys traveling and photography with his beautiful wife, Monique and their daughter.
