Law Office
of
Dan Koukol

Background

• Public defender 19 years.
• Partner in public defender firm 12 years.
• Founder of CrimeTime project.
• Extensive jury trial experience.
• Extensive negotiation experience.
• Trained over 2000 attorneys in California.
• Accedited to provide state bar acceditted training to criminal law attorneys.
• Trained over 500 judges in California regarding California sentencing law.

Biographical Information

• Attended University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law
• Admitted to California State Bar 1986
• Worked as Deputy Public Defender from 1987 until 2006
• Chief Assistant Public Defender for Placer County 1990 - 2000
• Partnership interest in firm employing 25+ attorneys 1994 - 2006
• Designed and managed development of California Crime Time 1992 - Present
• Released California Crime Time 1996
• Acquired government contracts with majority of California Counties in late 1990's.
• Trained thousands of California attorneys and judges over ten year period.

Dan's Story

The Early Days

Dan graduated from the University of the Pacific - McGeorge School of Law in 1984. At the time he owned a small software business and didn't plan to practice law any time soon. However, in late 1987, he received a telephone call from one of his law school classmates who asked him if he would work for two weeks for the Placer County Public Defender's Office so the friend could take a vacation. Dan said "sure" thinking that it would be a two week assignment and that he would probably pick up a few good stories during the experience.

One thing led to another, and after the two weeks had passed he was offered a "full time" position as a Public Defender. Actually, Dan was told that his job would be to cover the Roseville misdemeanor court and that as long as he "kept it under control" he could do whatever else he wanted to do in his spare time - including continue to run his software business.

Well, that's what he did. Without any supervision Dan handled every misdemeanor public defender case in Roseville from 1988 until 1991. And during this time he did one jury trial after another after another. His success rate in trial was astounding - at one point Dan avoided conviction in 7 jury trials in a row. Word spread throughout the court system and the legal community. At this time, Dan's (two) bosses had never won a jury trial - so the situation was indeed newsworthy.

Dan was asked to come up to Auburn and handle felony cases. He did. The track record continued. At one time Dan acquired back to back "not guilty" verdicts on serious felony cases (armed robberies) which caused the Roseville Press Tribune to interview the elected District Attorney asking him why they were prosecuting innocent people.

In the Trenches

For the next several years Dan found himself handling hundreds (actually thousands) of felony cases.

During this period Dan's supervisor wisely watched a niche team form in the office. The team consisted of Dan, his close friend David Brooks, and their investigator Brandon Short. The three were inseparable. Dan and David would ask the office supervisor for the "really bad" cases. The worst of the worst - cases where the facts, or the client were just gruesome. And then they would defend the case with astounding determination.

Needless to say, Dan became very seasoned during these years. He went from defending clients on misdemeanor drunk driving cases to defending serial killers and indisputable psychopaths. (He points out that he also defended many genuinely good people as well.)

During this period, the county awarded the public defender contract to a new firm - so Dan's boss changed. Dan's new boss (Len Tauman) asked Dan if he would be the "chief assistant public defender" - which in a public defender's office is the number two position.

With Len in charge and Dan in the number two position the office seemed to thrive. Len was very experienced and knowledgeable and he brought a strong desire to make the office the best public defender's office in the state. Len embraced technology during the early / mid 1990's and was very progressive. In fact the office was probably the first public defender office in that state which had a computer for every attorney, secretary and investigator in the office.

The day to day handling of cases and operation of the office shined during this period.

CrimeTime is Born

In the mid 1990's Len asked Dan if he could put his computer programming experience to use and write a program "to calculate sentences" under California's complex "determinate sentencing law". Dan said he wasn't sure if he could - but he would give it a try.

Dan teamed up with his old programming buddy (Steven Berndt) and the two went into isolation for the next 14 months. Dan did not handle any cases at all at this point - he completely immersed himself in sentencing law and the task of creating the software product.

After 4 months on the project Dan called Len and announced "It is do-able" he didn't say how long the project would take but he said that he was comfortable that the project could be completed. Len said "Do it, I will cover the office - If you can pull this off the rewards will be extraordinary".

Over the next year Dan probably walked around his block 500 times, talking to himself, stepping through the complex program flow of the sentencing calculations. Dan was not much fun to talk to during this period - He had no clue what was going on in the world. Dan was absolutely one hundred percent absorbed in the task.

In February 1996 CrimeTime was released at a criminal defense conference in Monterey California. Over one hundred copies sold the first weekend it went on sale.

During the next four years the software was adopted by agency after agency and county after county. The adoption of CrimeTime happened quicker than any other legal software application in California's history. By the late 1990's almost every county in the state was subscribing to CrimeTime.

During this period Dan was traveling and training the CrimeTime user community - which means he traveled to almost every county in the state and trained several thousand attorneys, judges and probation officer's to operate the program.

CrimeTime is now a staple item in the California attorney's toolbox and is involved in calculating sentencing requirements and collateral consequences for many if not most of the high profile cases in California (as well as the no-so-high profile cases). CrimeTime has been featured numerous times on national television (Cable News Network / MSNBC) regarding high profile cases.

Back in the Saddle Again

By the early part of the current decade CrimeTime was well established and the CrimeTime team was experienced and able to handle the day to day operations of the project.

In about 2002 Len asked for help in the public defender office. Len needed to go out of county for an extended period of time to do a change of venue death penalty trial (in Napa County). Dan shifted back into the public defender operation - picking up a caseload and otherwise helping out where required.

After counseling hundreds of attorney regarding critical issues associated with negotiation of serious felony cases handling his own cases, no matter how serious, had become instinctive.

Also the experience of doing public speaking, to small and large groups alike - discussing complex legal issues - several times a week, week in and week out for years created a new level of experience and confidence that would be impossible to acquire in any "normal" legal practice environment.

A Time For Change

In 2006 Placer County awarded the public defender contract to a new firm. The new firm proposed to provide the public defender service for several million dollars less than the Tauman / Koukol firm.

This was a difficult time for both Len and Dan. They had to lay off the public defender staff they had been working with for almost two decades. The firm had grown over the years from sixteen to forty-six employees.

Len went to work for the Sacramento Public Defender's Office. Dan opened his own private defense firm within the CrimeTime office facility. Ask for a tour if you visit the office - it is a very unique (and extremely productive) workplace.

Things were not "quiet" for long. Dan was almost immediately retained by an inmate's family that had heard about him from another attorney. The family was in a panic state. The defendant (who had a three year old daughter) was looking at 19 years in prison, the case was three weeks away from trial, and there had been virtually no work done on the case. [See the testimonial page to see how it turned out].

Word of the outcome on this case somehow spread to a family in the Fresno area. The defendant's family in this case was also desperately concerned for their son. When Dan took over the case the defendant was facing "two life terms plus 36 years". [See the testimonial page to see how this one turned out].

Dan found the extra time that was available to handle his "private" cases wonderful.

As you can see from his client's comments they found it wonderful as well.

The results that Dan has achieved working in this setting are nothing less than spectacular. Dan is now teamed up with the best investigator he has ever worked with (his father) and the two of them (and the support staff) are on a mission.