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September 01, 2010

About Dan Hull

I started Dan Hull What About Clients/Paris? in 2005 because the level of service at even the best global law firms is often inattentive and erratic, and even where the service is sound, it can still be a lot better. In addition to customer service, I write about lawyering, cultural aspects of doing business internationally, politics and litigation.

I am a member of the California, District of Columbia, Maryland and Pennsylvania bars. A litigator and lobbyist, I have life-long ties to the Washington, D.C. legal, regulatory and government communities, and equally close ties to lawyers in Europe, Latin America and Greater China.

I work at Hull McGuire PC. Typically, our clients are publicly-traded, and active in the Americas and Europe. We represent them in litigation, business law, international transactions, securities, intellectual property, environmental law, employment practices and legislative (lobbying). In recent years, we have worked to help established writers and authors turn their fiction and non-fiction works into feature films by production companies and studios in California and New York.

I practice in the areas of business litigation (U.S. federal courts, "American" ADR, and international arbitrations abroad), environmental law, IP, employment practices and legislative affairs. While I love litigation, it's expensive, and nearly always overdone. Lawyers need to do more to stop or minimize business disputes that waste client time and money, and keep clients from doing business. There is an unfortunate tendency for us to clients like they are the equipment needed for a game.

Where I've Been

A Procter & Gamble brat, I was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Maryland, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio. I attended Cincinnati's consistently excellent and well-regarded Indian Hill High School, where I was Senior Class President and an Eagle Scout. The students and faculty at IHHS--like Duke University after it--changed my life in ways too numerous and wonderful to mention. At Duke, I was a reporter and later an associate editor of The Chronicle, Duke's daily newspaper, and also a student representative of the Duke Board of Trustees. During my last academic year in college, I worked as an intern in health and environmental policy for a Wisconsin Senator (D-Wis.) in Washington, D.C. (93rd Congress) as part of course work at (and a grant from) Duke's Public Policy Institute. At the University of Cincinnati's College of Law, I was a student articles editor of the Law Review, and won some awards for writing. During my second year at UC Law, I saw my first two professional feature articles--one a cover article--published with the Sunday magazine of a major Ohio newspaper.

After law school, I worked again at the U.S. Congress, this time in the House as a legislative assistant to a U.S. Representative (R-Ohio), in the areas of energy and environment (95th, 96th Congresses). Later I joined the Washington, D.C. office of the now-defunct Rose, Schmidt, & Dixon as an associate and, eventually, a partner in the firm's litigation and environmental law groups. On St. Patrick's Day in 1992, Julie McGuire, a well-known and internationally respected corporate tax and transactional attorney based in Pittsburgh, and I founded Hull McGuire PC. We have offices in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, and San Diego. For some time now, I have been listed in Who's Who In America, Who's Who In The Law--and other publications with similar-sounding names that may or not mean that much that.

I travel in my work--mainly Europe, Latin America and all over the U.S. Since 1997, I've been very active in building both international and domestic networks for the benefit of our clients, my firm and other law firms. I have chaired, moderated or served as a speaker in conferences of the International Business Law Consortium in England, Wales, the U.S., Germany, Austria, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Canada, Mexico and Argentina. Together with Julie McGuire, I am a mainstay of the IBLC's Business Development Group, a member of the International Bar Association and one of the first members of the Congress of Fellows of The Center for International Legal Studies in Salzburg, Austria.

I am also Co-General Editor, together with Dr. Hans-Joseph ("Hanjo") Vogel, a German international lawyer who speaks American English better than Bill Buckley or Bill Clinton, of the IBLC publication International Directory of Corporate Symbols and Terms (IBLC 2003) by the Member Firms of the IBLC, which is available through Mr. Vogel or the IBLC in Salzburg.

Locally, in San Diego, between 1998 and 2004, I was an active member or officer of the Rancho Bernardo Planning Board, a land use and zoning board chartered by the City and County of San Diego, and serving a community of 45,000. In 2004, I was a primary fundraiser in San Diego for Wesley Clark For President, and was elected a Clark delegate to the Democratic National Convention (which of course lasted for about a week).

I live mainly in Rancho Bernardo, California. I'm interested in U.S politics, the workings of the new European Parliament, the histories of England and France, Ellen Bry, Parker Posey, Sarah Silverman, Annabeth Gish, travel, running, fishing and airports that make sense.

Posted by JD Hull at September 1, 2010 11:00 AM

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