Daniel J Dugan

I have been practicing law since 1977, with the firm since 1982,  a member of the firm since 1987,  on the Executive Committee since 2010, and managing partner since 2015. I concentrates on trials and appeals involving all manner of commercial and business disputes, and I have extensive experience litigating before state and federal courts nationwide, including bankruptcy courts and Orphans court. I regularly represent individuals and businesses in complex cases involving myriad issues, including breaches of contract, commercial real estate (lease violations, title disputes, and mortgage foreclosures), employment (such as wrongful termination, age, sex and race discrimination claims and enforcement of restrictive covenants), civil rights, bankruptcy litigation, estate litigation, unfair competition, securities law, fraud and lender liability.  I have been selected as a Super Lawyer five times since 2010.

Among my recent noteworthy cases are a $3.6 million jury verdict against a bank for its bad faith actions in refusing to fund the construction loan it had agreed to make to finance a commercial development; a $4 million plus judgment in a legal malpractice action in Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas; and the successful resolution of a $10 million plus claim for life insurance proceeds on behalf of a client whose wife drown in the Ganges River, India.  The latter claims involved numerous insurance companies, were litigated in both state and federal courts in Philadelphia and required the taking of numerous depositions inIndia.  After obtaining a verdict in favor of his client in federal court, I negotiated a successful settlement with the remaining insurers in state court.

Prior to joining Spector Gadon & Rosen, I practiced  in Washington, D.C. representing businesses and individuals in litigation in state and federal courts on matters ranging from application of energy-related regulations to defamation. I began my career as a law clerk for the Honorable Oren R. Lewis, United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia atAlexandria.

I am admitted to the bars of Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth and District of Columbia Circuits, and various United States District Courts. I have written and published articles on business and employment topics. I served six years as a member of the Diocesan Council for the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, am active the Church of the Holy Apostles, Penn Wynne, and on the Board of Bridlewild Trails Association, which maintains over 30 miles of hiking trails in Lower Merion.

I graduating in the top third of my class Duke University Law School. I also have an A.B. in economics from St. Joseph's University, where I graduated magna cum laude and earned the Delta Sigma Pi Scholarship Key.