Daniel Wall

Senior Associate

  • Daniel Wall
  • Phone: +1 415 957 3032

    Import to Address Book

  • Duane Morris LLP
    Spear Tower
    One Market Plaza, Suite 2200
    San Francisco, CA 94105-1127
    USA

Daniel D. Wall is a trial attorney and Senior Associate at Duane Morris LLP who represents public entities, companies, executives, and private clients in high-stakes disputes and sensitive matters in state and federal courts.

His practice focuses on complex litigation involving business disputes, governance and internal issues, regulatory compliance, constitutional matters, and criminal cases. He is often brought in when the stakes are significant and the issues require careful judgment, strategic clarity, and effective courtroom advocacy.

Mr. Wall is a courtroom-focused lawyer with substantial trial experience across all phases of litigation, including strategic case development, dispositive motion practice, depositions, trial preparation, and witness examinations. His matters frequently involve parallel legal, business, and reputational considerations requiring coordinated defense strategies.

Before joining Duane Morris, Mr. Wall served as a trial attorney with the Santa Clara County Office of the Public Defender, where he first-chaired many jury trials to verdict and represented thousands of clients. That experience developed the trial instincts, courtroom judgment, and ability to assess risk quickly, manage witnesses effectively, and advocate persuasively under pressure.

Mr. Wall was recognized as Duane Morris’s PB Attorney of the Year for his work on a complex international child abduction matter. He remains active in pro bono work and public service.

He serves on the Board of Directors of The Guardsmen, a nonprofit that raises funds to support at-risk youth, and is a Director and Executive Council for Santa Clara University School of Law’s Social Justice Advisory Board.

Mr. Wall is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, an All-American swimmer, and was a member of two ACC Championship teams at the University of Virginia.

Admissions

  • California
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
  • U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
  • U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
  • U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California

Education

  • Santa Clara University School of Law, J.D., 2016
  • University of Virginia, B.A., 2012

Experience

  • Duane Morris LLP
    - Senior Associate, 2025-present
    - Associate, 2023-2024
  • Santa Clara County, Office of the Public Defender
    - Trial Attorney, 2016-2023

Civic and Charitable Activities

  • The Guardsmen of San Francisco

Representative Matters

  • Successfully defended the Los Angeles Superior Court and its leadership in an action brought by 29 cities in Los Angeles County challenging the Superior Court’s revised bail schedules and Pre-Arraignment Release Protocols, which, rather than assigning a dollar amount to all crimes, assign non-financial release conditions for most nonviolent, non-serious offenses prior to arraignment. The plaintiffs sought writ, injunctive, and declaratory relief to essentially declare the new bail schedules unconstitutional and order the Superior Court to revise its bail schedules to revert to money bail. The case garnered significant media attention and ended with a favorable ruling for the defendants, resulting in the dismissal of the action.

  • Successfully represented a Peruvian father in a five-year case under the Hague Convention, securing the return of his abducted daughter from the U.S. to Peru. The case, involving multiple countries and complex legal challenges, concluded with the child's return just in time for her ninth birthday. 

  • Represent the Judicial Council of California, as well as several superior courts, judges and court executives, in statewide litigation involving criminal justice reforms. Successfully defended the Los Angeles Superior Court and its presiding judge in defeating two identical putative class actions raising constitutional challenges on behalf of criminal defendants being held pretrial on bail they could not afford. The Central District of California judge dismissed the cases, citing the Eleventh Amendment and judicial immunity; the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissals in a precedential opinion, holding that “Eleventh Amendment immunity is a threshold jurisdictional issue, and [federal courts] have no power to resolve claims brought against state courts or state court judges acting in a judicial capacity.”