Dani Jo Handell | About

Attorney Dani Jo Handell has filled a variety of roles over her career, working in both the private and public sectors, and leading investigations and cases involving matters of consumer and environment law, antitrust issues, and civil and criminal litigation. Dani Jo Handell spent the majority of her career practicing in California, first signing on with a private law firm, and then moving on to public companies and government prosecutors’ offices. Then, from 2009 to 2012, she served as the Executive Director of Legal and Regulatory functions for the wireless and Internet-phone service provider KeyOn Communications, Inc., of Las Vegas. Her responsibilities at the company ranged from filing for regulatory licenses and counseling on transactions, acquisitions, and purchase agreements to handling litigation and patent prosecutions and helping to secure a $10.2 million grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Before beginning her work in law, Dani Jo Handell earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. She then received her Juris Doctor from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, where she also wrote for, and helped edit, the Hastings Law Journal. In 1987, she joined the State Bar of California. Following college, Handell worked as an Antitrust and Litigation Associate for one of the nation’s top law firms, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP. At the firm’s Los Angeles office, she focused much of her time on antitrust and acquisition cases and represented numerous major corporations on these issues, including The Gillette Company and Merck & Co. Dani Jo Handell went on to serve as Senior Counsel of Edison International and as the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Micronomics, Inc.

From 2001 until 2009, Dani Jo Handell worked as a Deputy District Attorney at the county level, overseeing the consumer and environmental law divisions for both Solano and Sonoma counties’ district attorney’s offices. At both offices, she primarily handled cases of white-collar crimes, including matters of fraud, environmental and health violations, and tax evasion.