BIOGRAPHY

Daniel Horowitz has a remarkable life and career. At age 16 he booked the band Fleetwood Mac to perform at a local University. He started his own audio/video company when he was at Hampshire College and he graduated with a degree in writing. After college Horowitz went to law school, first at Boston University and then to Southwestern University in Los Angeles. His classmates included Marsha Clark of O.J. Simpson fame and television journalist, Jean Casarez.

His colorful legal career took off early. His first clients included the Mitchell Brothers, pioneers of the adult entertainment industry. He signed up for the California Appellate Panel sponsored by the Court of Appeal and his first assigned case was (by chance), the highest profile case in California.

Daniel set up a private practice in the city of Oakland, located in Alameda County, California. Oakland had (and sadly still has), one of the highest homicide rates in the country. In a very short time, Horowitz had handled dozens of murder cases and became the youngest person ever to qualify on the Alameda County death penalty panel.

Meanwhile, high profile cases and clients followed Horowitz as he gained a reputation for taking to tough cases that seemed impossible to win. He obtained a trial verdict of $865,000.00 for a court interpreter for the deaf who was raped by an Oakland Police officer. Until Horowitz took and won the case, the police department had rejected the interpreter’s report of rape and had maintained the officer on the police force.

A few years later, 60 Minutes featured another of Horowitz’ cases. This one was against the Oakland Housing Authority police force. Horowitz represented 41 citizens who had been robbed, beaten or falsely accused of crimes by this rouge police department. Horowitz’ work on this case led to the arrest of four of the officers and a civil recovery in the millions for Horowitz clients.

Horowitz developed a reputation for creative lawyering. He pioneered new motions including those that later led to major changes in the law. His hybrid state/federal "Pitchess" motion, led to a flurry of similar motions that argued that police agencies and prosecutors had an obligation to disclose misconduct by police officers. His recent work in "People v. Gardner" changed the way death penalty cases are funded.

When the Scott Peterson trial grabbed the nation’s headlines, Horowitz was recruited by CNN and MSNBC to be a legal commentator on the case. He was a regular on the Nancy Grace show and on the Abrams Report. When Nancy Grace got her show on HLN, Horowitz was a guest four of the first five shows and he is a regular on the program to this day.

The major cases were now coming to Horowitz on a regular basis. He spent two months in Ukraine, Turkey, Canada, Cyprus, Israel and The Netherlands when he represented former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Pavel Lazarenko in defense of White Collar criminal charges. Horowitz actually questioned witnesses in courts in Israel, Cyprus and The Netherlands.

When Michael Jackson was on trial in Santa Maria, California, Horowitz was there, covering the case as a legal commentator for MSNBC. His "mock" closing argument done for the Abrams Report, can still be found on line.

In 2005, Horowitz was in trial yet another own high profile case, that of Susan Polk, a suburban housewife accused of murdering her psychiatrist husband. The trial was underway when tragedy struck. The brutal killing of Daniel’s wife Pamela ended his life as he had known it.

The trial ended in a mistrial and Horowitz stopped working, literally living in a daze. Over time, he resumed his career, continuing with a single case that he had taken before Pamela’s death.

That case was a landmark one. The insurance industry had lobbied for the arrest of dozens of chiropractors for performing a technique of chiropractic manipulation that the insurance companies did not want to pay for. They convinced one rogue prosecutor’s office to charge this type of procedure as a crime ! (They argued that these Manipulations Under Anesthesia were outside the scope of chiropractic medicine and in the realm of medical doctors.) Horowitz took the case to trial and the jury hung 10-2 for acquittal. Charges against his client were dropped and plans to arrest dozens of chiropractors were abandoned.

Since that time, Horowitz has represented police officers in San Francisco in the famous "Videogate" case which pitted the First Amendment right of police officers to make a comedy video for a Christmas party against the Mayor of San Francisco’s desire to politicize the issue to benefit his planned campaign for Governor.

Daniel is known as a Libertarian but he has represented conservative talk show host Michael Savage in a variety of First Amendment cases including attempts by groups to silence him and to censor the content of his show. He represents David & Chris Gaubatz, the authors of the book the "Muslim Mafia" in another First Amendment case.

He represents Nick Prugo, the young man caught up in the so-called Hollywood "Bling Ring" case, where the homes of celebrities were targeted for burglary by teenagers.

Horowitz represents singer and songwriter, Oksana Grigorieva in her epic battle against Mel Gibson in the custody case involving their young daughter. He has represented Rachel Uchitel in her dispute with the New York Post over an article that she alleged mischaracterized what she had said.

Horowitz’ White Collar practice has blossomed and in recent years he has represented over a dozen business people and physicians in cases that often arise because governmental agencies are seeking to find political scapegoats. One case involved a medical professional who treated an undercover police officer who tried to get her to falsify medical records. She "fired" the patient and did not bill for the services. Despite acting properly, she was arrested. Horowitz got all charges dismissed, just before trial.

In 2011, Horowitz and Fox News commentator / lawyer, Robert Massi, settled a truck vs. motorcycle wrongful death case where they were co-counsel for the family of the victim. Also in 2011, Horowitz was recruited to handle the trial of an alleged leader of the notorious MS-13 prison gang. He recently obtained a $ 2 million dollar award of damages and fees for a worker who had been wrongfully terminated for exposing fraud in a state office.

Horowitz continues to be in trial on a regular basis. He has a team of lawyers and paralegals who handle a lot of his work but he still has time to give personal attention to every case.