Dane DeKrey

Prior to co-founding Ringstrom DeKrey, Dane DeKrey spent nearly a decade honing his craft in both private and public law.

Most recently, Dane was the Director of the ACLU of North Dakota, where he strived to make the state a better place to live for all its residents. His work took many forms, including lobbying at the state capital, writing about criminal justice issues, running grassroots campaigns, and fighting against discriminatory laws and practices of any kind.

Before that, Dane worked as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Fargo, North Dakota, handling hundreds of federal criminal cases. His caseload included alleged drug possession and distribution, illegal gun possession, noncitizen illegal reentry, and supervised release violations. He also handled cases originating on the Turtle Mountain Indian and Spirit Lake Dakota Reservations, including alleged murder, manslaughter, sexual assault, assault, arson, and others.

Dane began his legal career representing average people taking on large companies at Zimmerman Reed LLP, an elite boutique class action law firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He remains close with the firm and often collaborates with them and other firms on cases involving civil rights violations, consumer protection violations, and catastrophic personal injury.

Dane attended law school at the University of Minnesota, where he graduated magna cum laude (top 10% of class). Before law school, Dane worked for Congressman Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota. Before that, Dane attended college at the University of North Dakota, where he graduated summa cum laude (top 1% of class), received the top undergraduate thesis award, and was elected Phi Beta Kappa.

Outside of his legal work, Dane serves on the board of Lunch Aid North Dakota and as an advisor to the Great Northern Innocence Project. While Dane grew up in Wyoming, his roots are in North Dakota.