Retired Downey Brand Partner Dan Carroll Wins Mock Trial Volunteer Award

March 5, 2021

We are pleased to announce that on February 25, 2021, retired partner Dan Carroll was awarded the inaugural Gordon D. Schaber Mock Trial Volunteer of the Year award for his 17 years of outstanding service as a mock trial coach and mentor.  The award was presented as part of the Sacramento County Office of Education’s yearly awards program for Sacramento area high school mock trial teams participating in the annual Gordon D. Schaber mock trial competition.  This year, the awards were all presented on a Zoom broadcast.

Master of Ceremonies, Dan Herrera, Communications Director for the Sacramento County Office of Education, presented this year’s awards and noted that during Dan’s 17 years of service as a volunteer coach, he not only “provided expert legal tutoring, but he even fixed breakfast for the team every Saturday morning.”

Dan, who taught high school English before attending U.C. Davis law school, first volunteered as a coach for the Elk Grove High School mock trial team in 2003 when his son Brad began competing with the team. He continued coaching after Brad’s high school graduation in 2005.  “It was too much fun to stop,” Dan said. “And I found it renewing to work with high schoolers as they learned about the legal system and how it works.”  Dan has said one of the proudest accomplishments of his legal career was being one of the team’s coaches in 2007 when Elk Grove won the State Competition and then competed in the national tournament in Dallas.  He notes, “Downey Brand always supported my work with mock trial. It’s another of many ways the firm contributes to the community.”

Dan retired as a firm partner in December 2018. He acted part-time as Of Counsel to the firm for the next two years before permanently retiring from the firm and the practice of law at the end of 2020.

You can read more about the 2021 County Mock Trial Competition and watch the awards broadcast on YouTube here.