Long Time Advocate Encourages Respect

Dan Wilcoxen began his legal career, upon graduating cum laude from McGeorge School of Law in 1972, as a defense attorney with the Sacramento firm of Rust & Armenis. While primarily handling product liability defense cases, he enjoyed the few plaintiff's cases that he encountered a great deal.

Seven years later, on March 1, 1979, he started a one-man office. He had four cases - equally balanced between defense and plaintiff. Within six weeks his case load increased to 88. Referrals from former adversaries left him with two defense and 86 plaintiff cases. Within a year he was handling 160 plaintiff cases and there was no looking back. Jim Montgomery, a current partner, joined Dan on August 15, 1980. And in November, 1980, they opened an office with Gary Callahan, at the location where Dan continues to practice.

Dan has an reputation for standing up for the wronged and the downtrodden. He handles almost all of his cases on contingency basis. His practice focuses mostly on product liability; medical malpractice; automobile, motorcycle, aircraft and boating accidents; and insurance bad faith, but he still handles some defense cases for several well known businesses in Sacramento.

Over time Dan has become involved in many organizations relating to the practice of law. He has been president of the McGeorge Alumni Association and of the Capitol City Trial Lawyers Association (now Sacramento Consumer Attorneys) of which he is still a board member. He is a National Board of Trial Advocacy certified specialist in civil trial advocacy and a member of ABOTA. He has been involved extensively in legal education and serves frequently as a pro tem settlement conference judge and arbitrator. His role in rounding up the "best of the best" attorneys in Sacramento to assist the court in reducing a trial backlog is especially appreciated.

Dan thoroughly enjoys the practice of law and especially enjoys the interaction with local attorneys "who are the best in the nation." Dan states that he has traveled all over the country for clients and "without question, the lawyers in Sacramento are finer than any I've seen anywhere in the United States."

"The practice of law has been a great learning experience," Dan says, "both in the field of complicated mechanical cases and medical malpractice." Although he won't admit it, he has bent over backwards to assist young lawyers in learning the things they don't teach in law school, i.e. how to handle a case against the defense lawyers who are just doing their job, create friends as opposed to enemies, and get the best results for his clients.

Although it is well known in the community that Dan "does not have to" practice law at this point in his career, he enjoys it so much he has no intention of quitting. He says that he does it for the emotional rewards. Many of his clients have become good friends over the years. But he says that some of his closest friends are the defense attorneys who are his adversaries on a day-to-day basis.

Despite the fact that he has been practicing law for 29 years, Dan (with his longtime friend and partner, Jim Montgomery) is looking forward to joining forces with his old partner, Gary Callahan, and good friend Clay Arnold in the near future, to create quite a large plaintiff's firm. They have not decided on the name of the firm (egos being what they are) but with each of them having been Trial Advocate of the Year, they will create a powerful firm of attorneys who seem to like and get along with everyone.

Good luck in the future to Gary, Clay and Dan.