Practice Areas
Dan is the chair of the firm’s U.S. Supreme Court practice, and he is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading Supreme Court and appellate lawyers. In 2022, Dan was named one of Law360’s “Appellate MVPs,” an honor awarded to only four lawyers in the United States—Dan’s second time winning the award in the past four years.
Dan has argued fifteen SCOTUS cases in private practice, including twice this past Term. He recently had three cert. petitions granted in a 12-month period (a feat matched by few global firms), and personally handled over 5% of the Court’s merits docket in OT 2018. He has been named to the NLJ’s “Appellate Hot List,” earned weekly honors as a Law360 “Legal Lion,” achieved national appellate rankings in multiple key publications, and was named OT 2017’s “top performing” brief-writer among the Court’s repeat players. His petitions are regularly featured among the “Petitions of the Week” on SCOTUSblog, and he is a three-time winner of NAAG’s Best Brief Award for excellence in brief-writing before the Court. In the past half-decade, Dan ranks among the top five U.S. lawyers for total SCOTUS arguments in private practice, notching “rare victor[ies]” (SCOTUSblog) and “huge win[s]” (Reuters) in cases that industry experts said could not be won.
Beyond the Supreme Court, Dan handles high-stakes appeals nationwide, litigating cases (for plaintiffs and defendants) in virtually every major area of federal law (especially securities, patents, ERISA, arbitration, and bankruptcy). Dan also handles landmark state-court appeals, including arguing repeatedly before the Texas Supreme Court.
