Dan M. McDaniel

Dan McDaniel has more than 20 years’ experience representing domestic and international gaming clients, including casinos, manufacturers, distributors, lessors, shareholders, officers, directors, key employees and others. Mr. McDaniel practices exclusively in gaming law and is the chair of Baker Donelson’s Gaming Industry Service Team.

Mr. McDaniel represents clients before gaming authorities with regard to licensing, registration, findings of suitability, transfers of ownership, work permits, patron disputes, investigations, disciplinary proceedings and other regulatory matters. Mr. McDaniel also has experience representing clients in proposed gaming legislation.

Mr. McDaniel launched his gaming law practice while at Heidelberg and Woodliff in 1991, later moving in 1996 to Phelps Dunbar, where he began that firm’s gaming practice and grew it to one of the largest gaming practices in the country. In 2010, he moved to Baker Donelson to form the Firm’s Gaming Industry Service Team.

EDUCATION:

• University of Mississippi, J.D., 1973
• University of Southern Mississippi, B.S., 1971

ADMISSIONS : Mississippi, 1973

Representative Matters:

• Served as special counsel to a private equity group in its bankruptcy court purchase of a controlling equity interest in a publicly traded corporation that owns and operates multiple casinos.
• Guided a developer client through the Mississippi regulatory process to construct and operate a shore-based gaming establishment.
• Led the $100 million acquisition of a riverboat casino located in Amelia, Louisiana, handling regulatory and gaming issues as well as financial and real estate aspects.
• Served as expert witness regarding gaming suitability issues in tax-related litigation.
• Served as special counsel to a trust in its foreclosure of lenders’ interest in licensed casinos.
• Served as appellate counsel and obtained the reversal of a $1.9 million judgment against a gaming company and entry of judgment in client’s favor in Mississippi Court of Appeals. Successfully opposed former judgment creditors motion for rehearing and petition for writ of certiorari to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Professional Honors & Activities:

• Member – Mississippi Association of Gaming Attorneys (founding member); Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance for the State of Mississippi (former member); The Mississippi Bar; Federal Bar Association; American Bar Association
• Chairman – Gaming Section, Mississippi Bar Association, 2000 – 2001
• Named as a top gaming lawyer by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers since 2005