Daniel is co-chair of O’Melveny’s State Attorneys General Investigations and Litigation Group. He is an experienced litigator and strategic advisor who specializes in high-stakes litigation, government investigations and controversies, and regulatory matters. Daniel regularly handles government contract disputes, including bid protests at the state and local levels. His broad practice encompasses products liability, healthcare, environmental, technology, financial services, and white collar and investigation matters that could appear before government agencies.
Daniel also represents government agencies in appellate litigation, investigations, and regulatory counseling matters.
Daniel previously served as Chief of Policy and Senior Counsel to California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris. In that position, he was a member of the four-person executive team that supervised and operated the 5,000-person California Department of Justice. As Harris’s primary legal policy advisor, Daniel was responsible for developing and executing the Attorney General’s policy initiatives and supervising some of the department’s most complex and high-profile matters, covering healthcare, technology and privacy, criminal justice, civil rights, environmental and consumer law. As a result, he has a deep understanding of the national state attorney general landscape and the best strategies for engagement with AG’s offices.
In 2009, Daniel was appointed by President Obama to serve at the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). From 2009-2013, he worked as a litigation attorney for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and as Special Assistant to the General Counsel of HHS. In those roles, Daniel counseled CMS and HHS on Affordable Care Act implementation, advising on statutory authority and Administrative Procedure Act issues for regulations and guidance documents and served as HHS’ lead agency counsel on dozens of constitutional challenges to the Affordable Care Act, including the NFIB v. Sebelius case.
Daniel later served in the Obama White House as senior director of the White House Office of Cabinet Affairs, where he coordinated logistics, communications and policy between the President and his domestic cabinet agencies (including HHS and the U.S. Department of Justice).
Daniel maintains a dynamic pro bono practice and is active in several community organizations. He also serves as statewide chair of U.S. Senator Alex Padilla’s judicial evaluation commission.
In 2013, he won the national Hispanic Health Leadership Award from the National Hispanic Medical Association and in 2014 was selected by the Huffington Post as one of the 40 Under 40 Hispanics in American Politics. In 2016, he was selected by the American Bar Association as one of the Top 40 Young Lawyers in the United States. In 2017, he was named to Latino Leaders Magazine’s “Top Latino Lawyers”.
