DAN PETERSON

Appeals Team

Dan M. Peterson is an attorney and constitutional litigator, whose practice consists almost exclusively of Second Amendment and firearms law matters.

He earned his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School and his B.A. degree in political science magna cum laude from the University of Iowa. In addition to practicing law, Dan is a Washington Fellow at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life.

Early in his career, Peterson served as General Counsel for the Gulf & Great Plains Legal Foundation in Kansas City, Missouri (now Landmark Legal Foundation). During the latter part of the 1980s, he was Executive Director of the Center for Judicial Studies in Washington D.C. and Associate Editor of Benchmark magazine. For many years he was a full equity partner with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP (now Norton Rose Fulbright), a large, international law firm where he concentrated on federal regulatory and administrative law.

In 2010, Peterson began his own law practice focusing on the Second Amendment and firearms regulatory issues. In addition to litigating Second Amendment and other firearms-related cases, he has engaged in multiple lawsuits against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives and has filed numerous amicus curiae briefs in the Supreme Court of the United States and many federal and state appellate courts.

Peterson is a member of the bars of Virginia, the District of Columbia, Iowa (inactive status), and Texas. He is a long-time member of the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court, and is admitted to practice before most of the federal appellate courts including the First Circuit, Second Circuit, Fourth Circuit, Fifth Circuit, Eighth Circuit, Ninth Circuit, Tenth Circuit, D.C. Circuit, and Court of Federal Claims.

Among other publications, Dan’s writings have appeared in the Houston Law Review, The American Spectator, American Legion magazine, Legal Times, Delaware Lawyer, The World & I, USA Today, Jurist, the London Daily Mail Online, and popular firearms magazines. He has taught at the George Mason School of Law (now Antonin Scalia Law School) and Baylor College of Medicine.