Re, Daniel C.

Not many law firms have an expert on the English common law nor much occasion to use one. But when, in representing Anna Nicole Smith in the United States Supreme Court, an issue arose concerning the jurisdiction of the English Chancery Courts in 1789, GMSR knew exactly who to tap – Alan Diamond. Alan combines a wealth of practical litigation experience with the intellectual curiosity, achievement and creativity that GMSR seeks to bring to every case.

Raised in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, Alan graduated with a B.A. in communications and political science from New York University. He graduated from George Washington University Law School, where he served as Managing Editor of the law review. Moving to the West Coast, Alan joined Loeb & Loeb in Los Angeles, devoting his practice to complex civil litigation. He later joined what was then Manatt, Phelps, Rothenberg & Tunney in Los Angeles, again concentrating on a variety of business litigation.

Alan was about to make a 180-degree change in his life. After taking a short summer program at Cambridge University in England, Alan became enamored of both the academic life and the United Kingdom. Enrolling in Trinity Hall, one of the oldest colleges at Cambridge University, Alan began a divided existence, attending Cambridge during the academic year, and then serving as of counsel to O'Neill & Lysaght in Los Angeles during the summers, where he continued to handle complex business litigation as well as white collar criminal cases. Alan received his L.L.M. with honors from Cambridge in 1984, and his Ph.D. in 1992, specializing in English Legal History. Forgoing the opportunity to stay in England and teach law as a Cambridge Don, Alan returned to Los Angeles where he worked full-time as a litigator for O'Neill & Lysaght. In 1997, he joined GMSR where, befitting his broad background, he has handled a wide variety of civil appellate matters in such areas as civil rights, medical malpractice, land use, and breach of contract.

Alan is an avid movie fan and happily admits to being stuck in the Golden Age of Hollywood. A devotee of the Great American Song Book and the classic singers of the thirties, forties, and fifties, Alan is an expert on old time show business, a love cultivated when he served as a studio page at the Ed Sullivan Show while in college.

While Alan has an abundance of practical experience, few practicing lawyers have his wealth of teaching experience as well. Alan taught pre-trial advocacy at the University of Southern California Law Center from 1982 to 1985, and was an adjunct professor there in 1985, teaching English Legal History. He conducted legal history seminars at Corpus Christi College, Magdalene College, and Trinity Hall in Cambridge. Alan has also edited an academic volume on the work of a leading Victorian thinker, Sir Henry Maine, contributing an introduction as well as a chapter for that volume.