In June 2014, Dan became an equity member of Pearson Butler, where he provides a wide range of legal support, including general counsel services for mid-sized businesses, entrepreneurs, and small businesses needing legal support but lacking full-time in-house counsel. He collaborates with other firm specialists to provide a range of support in relation to business planning, financial planning, business formation, business transactions, leases, property issues, fraud, probate resolution, interstate commerce regulation, government regulatory enforcement resolution, non-competition agreements, intellectual property disputes, tax issues, and family/domestic law.
Dan also litigates as needed on behalf of the firm’s clients. Dan has over twenty years of litigation experience in numerous federal and state jurisdictions before administrative tribunals as well as various trial and appellate courts. In many instances, these efforts have involved sensitive, confidential matters for various high-profile companies, most of which are subject to strict confidentiality restrictions. Some of Dan’s recent publicly disclosed successes include a $23.4 million dollar fraud judgment secured in Jameson Stanford Resources Corp. v. Stanford (Utah 5th Dist. Ct. 2014), and drafting the successful brief for Veysey v. Nelson, 2017 UT App 77, cert. denied, 397 P.3d 846 (Utah 2017).
From 2009-2014, Dan worked for McCormick Barstow LLP, focusing on complex fraud, business emergency, intellectual property, and complex insurance matters in locations such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Seattle, and Salt Lake City. He investigated, litigated, and/or settled numerous highly sensitive and confidential difficulties for clients, including the prosecution of multi-million dollar disputes on behalf of some of the largest companies in the world.
From 2002-09, Dan supervised corporation-wide litigation activities for a life insurance company in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also served as Associate General Counsel. During his employment, he supervised or provided advice for legal functions in nearly every department of the company at various times: compliance, customer service, leases and contracts, reinsurance, human resources, product development and form design, information technology, marketing, corporate governance, distribution, fraud and claims investigation, anti-money laundering, intellectual property, and regulatory outreach. Dan also supervised the legal details related to the sale of a high-rise building and related relocation of his company from its headquarters to a new location.
From 2000-2002, Dan was a commercial litigator with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, in Palo Alto, California. Among other things, he handled contracts, commercial, securities, consumer protection, corporate, lease, criminal, bankruptcy, and international law matters for fortune 500 companies in international arbitration, as well as federal and state cases in California, New York, and Delaware.
During the 1999-2000 court term, Dan was a law clerk for the Honorable Alan Norris, U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, Columbus, Ohio.
Dan has also worked for the Office of Senior Staff Counsel for the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Illinois; the Office of Senior Staff Counsel for the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado; Justice I. Daniel Stewart of the Utah Supreme Court in Salt Lake City, Utah; and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah. He assisted with researching and proofreading Chief Judge Posner’s 1996 revision of the Practitioner’s Handbook for Appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. At various times from 1997-1999, Dan also worked for Senator Robert F. Bennett in Washington, D.C., including assignments for the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, Subcommittee of Financial Services and Technology; Fiddler, Gonzalez & Rodriguez, in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Kim & Chang, in Seoul, Korea.
Dan is a noted litigator and scholar regarding parental rights, education, First Amendment, and institutional reform issues. He has lectured widely and authored law review articles on such topics. He was a contributing author for The Pre-K Debates, a 2011 book edited and sponsored by faculty at Yale University; Neighborhood Disputes: Law and Litigation, a 2013 legal treatise; Personal Liability Under the Utah Payment of Wages Act, Attorney At Law Magazine at 15 (2017); and Managing Irresponsible Actors In Federal Interpleader Actions, 50 Tort Trial & Ins. Practice L. J. 1 (2014), the lead article for the fiftieth issue of the American Bar Association’s premier law review. He made a presentation entitled “Overview of Interpleader Fundamentals” at the Utah State Bar 2016 Summer Convention. He has participated in litigation before various local, state, and federal courts, primarily in California, Utah, and nearby western states. Dan is admitted to practice law in the States of California and Utah, U.S. Federal District Court of Utah, the U.S. District Courts of California, the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.
Dan believes that attorneys have a responsibility to remember that they are often helping clients with the most important unresolved issues in each client’s life, regardless of the client’s wealth or societal status. The most satisfying professional moments come when Dan sees clients secure satisfying outcomes for their crucial transactions or disputes and then move forward.
Education:
- BYU, J. Reuben Clarke School of Law, J.D., 1998. Law Review, Moot Court, Phi Delta Phi, Beta Gamma Sigma, BYU Student Legal Scholarly Paper Awards 1996-1997, Moot Court Board of Advocates 1997-1998 (magna cum laude)
- Marriott School of Business, Master of Organizational Behavior, 1998
- Brigham Young University, Bachelor of Science, Resource Management (Urban & Natural Resource Planning), minors in Business Management and Recreation 1992 (magna cum laude)
Bar Admissions:
- Utah
- U.S. District Court of Utah
- California
- U.S. District Courts of California
- U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
- U.S. Supreme Court
Honors and Awards:
- AMVETS Memorial Scholar
- National Eagle Scout Association Elks Scholar
- Adolph Coors Scholar
- Edwin S. Hinckley Scholar
- Phi Kappa Phi
- Golden Key Honor Society
Dan was the youngest graduate of BYU in his graduating baccalaureate class at the age of 19. Dan completed the Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), 2009, and Certified Life Underwriter (CLU), 2008. (He is on inactive status with regard to those two designations.) Dan is a Fellow of the Life Management Institute (FLMI). His designations include Associate, Insurance Regulatory Compliance (AIRC), Associate, Reinsurance Administration (ARA), and Associate, Customer Service (ACS).
Affiliations:
- Utah State Bar Association
- California State Bar Association
Practice Areas:
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