Daniel Shaffer

Dan Shaffer has spent his entire adult life working in one capacity or another with people facing serious problems. He started off working in psychiatric facilities for children. He later worked in group homes, day treatment programs and street outreach in Eastern Iowa. Over 11 years of working with kids and families in crisis taught Dan how to be a good listener, to be non-judgmental and that everyone is different no matter how the circumstances may appear at the time. He learned to find positive qualities in people and to help them use those to address serious problems. While Dan thought that being a lawyer would somehow be different. He was wrong. Today he helps people facing the most serious legal peril in Western Colorado. He has represented people accused of everything imaginable from simple traffic offenses to the systematic decade long theft and sale of human bodies and parts. Dan has represented people accused of multiple sex offenses spanning years exposing them to lifetimes of possible prison sentences. Dan has represented persons in prison serving decades long sentences for purposes of post-conviction negotiated dispositions. Dan helps people in both State and Federal Court in Western Colorado. Understanding the nuances of each court has often helped people navigate an unknown future. Sometimes people are charged in State Court and the Federal government seeks to prosecute them in Federal District Court as well. Having an attorney who can stay with you or your loved one no matter the jurisdiction ensures the best possible results. When Dan has clients that are charged with a seemingly overwhelming amount of charges and or evidence, he partners with the best and brightest team members he can find to assemble a defense team often from the beginning of a case to get the best possible results against the worst odds. It can be very intimidating to be charged with a crime by the State for Federal government who seem to have endless resources funded by us, the tax payers, all brought to bear on you or your loved one. Having Dan by your side will ensure that you don’t feel like you are alone in that battle.

Dan understood very early on in his career that a degree alone didn’t someone a good attorney because a law degree most often doesn’t come with experience or advanced training. Dan has consistently sought out the things that make attorneys into real advocates. Dan attended the National College for Criminal Defense (NCDC) in Macomb, Georgia in 2010. There he learned a theory of the case method that forever changed the way he thought about criminal cases from the goals of investigation to negotiation and ultimately each aspect of trial. For years Dan relied on that method and refined it specific to his practice and personality. Doing so allowed him to obtain some outstanding results both at negotiated plea and sentencing as well as at trial.

For several years after attending NCDC Dan reminded his wife that he was going to eventually attend the Trial Lawyers College. A good friend of his attended the three-week college in 2020 and in 2021 Dan attended and completed the three week program. Still knowing there was more to work on he attended a regional voir dire workshop in February of 2022 and Defense of the Damned in Montgomery Alabama in July of 2022. Defense of the Damned is a Trial lawyers College program specifically designed for the criminal defense attorney. There, small groups of attorneys work-shopped everything from voir dire to closing argument testing themes and theories designed to move jurors to act on their clients behalf in serious cases.

In February of 2022 at the voir dire workshop a very well known and talented attorney named Rafe Foreman said, “If you want to get better at voir dire (jury selection) there are two places other than the Trail Lawyers College to do it. Stetson University and Temple University Schools of Law.” So, in the summer of 2022 Dan applied to Stetson University School of Law to their LLM (Master of Laws) program for an advanced legal degree in Advanced Advocacy. Dan recognizes that there is a big difference between an attorney and an advocate. He wants to be the best advocate he can an he wants to do that for people facing serious charges that need more than a lawyer. They need an experienced advocate who also happens to have a law degree.

Today Dan remains active in the Trial Lawyers College work-shopping themes and theories with other advocates and he continues to work on a degree in Advanced Advocacy at Stetson University School of Law despite the fact that he is in his early 50’s. If you’re reading this after 2024 ask him if he finished that program and what it did for him. He’ll be glad to share with you.