Career timeline
Danny Sheehan: a timeline
Key dates in the life and legal career of Daniel P. Sheehan, from Harvard to the Pentagon Papers, the Christic Institute and the New Paradigm Institute.
1945
Born April 9 in Glens Falls, New York.
1965
Co-founds Roxbury Summer, a Boston Archdiocese project that turns unused Catholic schools into childcare and job-training centers.
1967
Graduates from Harvard College with an A.B. in American Government, with honors.
1968
Directs the Biafran Relief Commission’s emergency food airlift during the Nigerian Civil War.
1970
Graduates from Harvard Law School and joins Cahill, Gordon, Sonnett, Reindel & Ohl in New York as an associate First Amendment counsel.
1971
Works on the Pentagon Papers case for The New York Times. Panther 21 defendants, for whom he is pro bono associate counsel, are acquitted. Serves as counsel to inmates after the Attica uprising.
1972
Works on the reporters’ privilege cases decided as Branzburg v. Hayes and on Eisenstadt v. Baird. Joins Bailey, Alch & Gillis in Boston as special trial counsel.
1973
Serves with F. Lee Bailey as special counsel in the Watergate burglary case. Begins graduate study at Harvard Divinity School.
1974
Chief trial counsel for the ACLU’s office for the Rocky Mountain states; amicus counsel in the Wounded Knee trials, dismissed for government misconduct.
1975
Becomes counsel to the U.S. Jesuit Order’s National Office of Social Ministries in Washington, D.C., a role he holds until 1985.
1976
Files the Karen Silkwood case against Kerr-McGee.
1979
A federal jury awards $10.5 million in the Silkwood case. Represents victims after the Three Mile Island accident.
1980
Co-founds the Christic Institute with Sara Nelson and Fr. William Davis.
1984
The Supreme Court decides Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee, holding that federal law does not bar punitive damages for nuclear injuries.
1985
A federal jury finds Klan and Nazi members and Greensboro police liable in the Greensboro civil rights case. Helps defend Sanctuary Movement workers in Texas.
1986
Files Avirgan v. Hull, months before the Iran-Contra affair becomes public. The Silkwood case settles. Visiting professor of constitutional law at Antioch School of Law.
1993
Becomes President and General Counsel of the Romero Institute in Santa Cruz, California. Cesar Chavez Visiting Professor at UC Santa Barbara, 1993 to 1994.
1999
Directs a new paradigm initiative for Mikhail Gorbachev’s State of the World Forum.
2004
The Romero Institute launches the Lakota People’s Law Project, with Danny as chief counsel.
2012
Begins teaching lecture courses at UC Santa Cruz, starting with The Trajectory of Justice.
2013
Publishes his memoir, The People’s Advocate. Teaches a UCSC course on the JFK assassination.
2017
Represents Standing Rock water protector Chase Iron Eyes. Felony charges are dropped in 2018.
2021
Represents former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo.
2023
Launches the New Paradigm Institute with Sara Nelson, serving as Chief Counsel.