Constitutional attorney · Educator · Author
Daniel P. Sheehan
For more than fifty years Danny Sheehan has taken on cases about government secrecy, civil rights and public accountability, from the Pentagon Papers and Karen Silkwood to the Christic Institute. Today he is Chief Counsel of the New Paradigm Institute, working for full and responsible disclosure of what governments know about UAP.
Who is Danny Sheehan?
Constitutional attorney, educator and UAP disclosure advocate
Daniel P. Sheehan, known as Danny, is an American constitutional and public-interest attorney born in 1945. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, he worked on the Pentagon Papers case, served as chief counsel in the Karen Silkwood case, and co-founded the Christic Institute, which in 1986 brought Avirgan v. Hull, a suit challenging the covert network behind the Contra supply operation. He is President of the Romero Institute and Chief Counsel of the New Paradigm Institute, which works for full and responsible disclosure of the truth about unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).
- Current roles: Chief Counsel, New Paradigm Institute; President and General Counsel, Romero Institute
- Known for: the Pentagon Papers, Karen Silkwood, Greensboro, the Sanctuary Movement, Avirgan v. Hull, Standing Rock and UAP disclosure
- Education: Harvard College (A.B., 1967), Harvard Law School (J.D., 1970), graduate study at Harvard Divinity School
- Teaching: UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara; more than 100 recorded lectures
- Book: The People’s Advocate (Counterpoint, 2013)
Current focus
UAP disclosure and the New Paradigm Institute
In 2023 Danny and Sara Nelson launched the New Paradigm Institute (NPI) as an initiative of the Romero Institute. NPI works for full and responsible UAP disclosure through strategic litigation, policy work, legal support for whistleblowers, public education and grassroots organizing through Citizens for Disclosure.
Danny’s involvement with the subject goes back to the 1970s. He served as counsel to Harvard psychiatrist John Mack and to Steven Greer’s Disclosure Project, and he represented former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo.
Legal legacy
Five decades of public-interest law
1971
The Pentagon Papers
Worked on The New York Times’ legal team in the case that let the press publish the secret history of the Vietnam War.
1970 to 1975
1970s civil liberties cases
Panther 21, Attica, Watergate, Wounded Knee, Eisenstadt v. Baird and more.
1976 to 1986
Karen Silkwood
Chief counsel in the suit against Kerr-McGee, which won a landmark 1984 Supreme Court ruling on punitive damages for nuclear injuries.
1979
Three Mile Island
Represented victims of the nuclear accident and fought the release of radioactive material into the Susquehanna River.
1979 to 1985
Greensboro
Helped win the only verdict holding anyone responsible for the 1979 Klan and Nazi killings of five demonstrators.
1980s
The Sanctuary Movement
Helped defend church workers in Texas prosecuted for sheltering refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala.
1986 to 1992
Avirgan v. Hull and Iran-Contra
The Christic Institute’s racketeering suit against the covert network behind the Contra supply operation.
2004 to 2018
Standing Rock
Chief counsel of the Lakota People’s Law Project and defense counsel for water protector Chase Iron Eyes.
2023 to today
UAP disclosure
Chief Counsel of the New Paradigm Institute, working for full and responsible disclosure.
Teacher
Lectures and courses
Danny’s UC Santa Cruz courses were recorded and are free to watch: his own cases (2012), the JFK assassination (2013), worldviews and the public intellectual (2014), natural law and the Constitution (2015), the history of American covert operations (2016), and climate, impeachment and Standing Rock (2019).