My name is Daniel J. Lee, and I am a devoted husband, father, son, friend, and lawyer. Ever since immigrating to the United States at the early age two, I grew up, studied, and established my life in Southern California. Growing up with instability under struggling immigrant parents was difficult, and many aspects of my life ended in failure, but I firmly believe it is those struggles that allows me to relate in this world with a stronger testimony. Most of all, I was blessed with Godsent people who stayed by my side, lifted me up, and enabled me to overcome empowered by faith, hope, and love.
Academically, I’ve consistently excelled at the top of class throughout my formative years and high school. At UCLA undergrad, however, I was at the bottom of my class wandering through paths of life I may have been better off. But God bless the broken road. When enrolling at the best school on the west coast, my intentions were to graduate with a Business Economics major in three years, but as the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry, I ended up proudly graduating with a Sociology major in six years.
The worst years of my life culminated with my parents’ divorce breaking up our family, losing our home to foreclosure, and, most tragic of all, losing a friend to gang violence. I have lived with guilt ever since of not having done enough to save him that night out together. Yet, in His Grace, the worst year of my life became the year of my salvation—I got back up to live my remaining days with purpose, which to me, is to do what I can, even in however small a role it may be, for the betterment of people I’m called to interact with in this life. And so (some would say ironically) I decided to go to law school to engage in the field of criminal law uplifting the troubled youth as a walking example of second chance, and prosecuting hardcore gangs endangering our community.
Having laid such an excellent track record in my undergraduate studies, I was fortunate to have been accepted into Chapman University School of Law in 2007 except that I couldn’t afford the tuition with no money or credit. Yet, I was blessed with a co-signer, friends, mentors, and classmates who allowed me to focus on and excel in my studies to eventually graduate with honors serving as Editor in the Chapman Law Review.
In law school, I trained to become a trial attorney clerking for the Gang Unit of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office but when I graduated in 2010, there were hiring freezes across all counties as a rippling effect of the 2008 financial crisis. My father once analogized life to a river in that if one way gets blocked off, the river still flows in another direction. That other direction for me was Civil Litigation. For the next ten years, I went on to advocate at the trial level from intake to case resolution on behalf of various clients in a myriad of industries, including national financial institutions (e.g., Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, U.S. Bank, Bank of New York Mellon, Wells Fargo), national title insurers (e.g., Fidelity National Title), international broadcasting corporations (e.g., Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, Seoul Broadcasting System, Korean Broadcasting System), public companies (e.g., Toshiba, ABM Industries, Fannie Mae), large developers (e.g., Warmington), closely held corporations, and high level executives. During this time, I was blessed to have represented clients with deep pockets enabling me to work countless hours experiencing the full spectrum of state and federal civil procedure, including appellate advocacy. Most of all, throughout my journey from Associate to Partner, I was blessed to have worked side by side with colleagues who remain dear friends at the boutique litigation firm of Ross Wersching & Wolcott LLP (now Ross Wolcott Teinert & Prout LLP), including the Honorable Eric J. Wersching.
With my life facing back up on the trajectory, I reached the pinnacle of my lifetime in 2016 when I married my beautiful wife, Arielle. She gave me a Home again and our love multiplied with little children we call Eliana and Elijah. As my everyday stabilized though, there was still a tug at my heart calling me to use my talents with purpose to help people, not corporations. There will always be someone to represent the corporations, but not every person has a lawyer to whom he or she can turn in a time of need.
As Destiny is All, Victims’ Legal Counsel, APC was born to serve as a beacon of hope and, to the extent possible, help achieve peace of mind for clients so that they can carry on from unfortunate disruptions in their personal lives. We represent the everyday people. We help those who have been injured recover for what they lost. We can’t turn back time, but we can maximize monetary compensation for what was taken away such as freedom from physical pain, peace, emotional stability, ability to earn, mobility, enjoyment of life, financial savings, companionship, and dignity. We challenge insurance companies that act in bad faith shortcutting their obligations. We help the injured without health insurance receive necessary medical treatment. We secure justice for those discriminated and retaliated against based on their protected characteristics. We serve as righteous indignation in the court of law for the wronged, abused, and neglected. We now use our talents to become blessings in the lives of others, as we were so blessed throughout our past, and we Love what we do.
God bless you for reading my story, and for all those who played a part, thank you—your graciousness to me will be lived forward. With much gratitude, hope, and sincerity, I humbly ask you all to be witnesses to the next chapters to come.
