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dbranch@winstead.com
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Dan Branch serves as a senior attorney based in the firm's Dallas and Austin offices. Dan is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives, representing downtown, uptown, Park Cities and east Dallas.  He possesses a blend of high-level public policy and government experience, along with more than 25 years of experience in a broad range of commercial real estate, corporate and partnership transactions. A recognized leader in the legal profession and a trusted counsel, Dan is often called upon to solve complex business and real estate issues for regional and national clients.

With more than two decades of legal and public affairs work, including service in the Texas Legislature since 2003, Dan is both a respected lawyer and former lawmaker throughout the state of Texas. During his time in the legislature, Dan served on numerous committees, including as Chairman of the House Committee on Higher Education, and as a member of the House Appropriations, Public Education, Elections, Pensions and Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committees, Co-Chairman of the Dallas Area Delegation and as a Member of the Legislative Budget Board.

Dan was honored to serve as judicial clerk and briefing attorney to The Honorable Jack Pope, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, from 1983-1984.

In 1999, then Governor George W. Bush appointed Dan as chairman of the Texas Public Finance Authority. Dan had previously served as Secretary and Vice Chairman of the TPFA.

After leading President Bush's 1994 and 1998 gubernatorial campaigns in Dallas County, Dan directed a part of the Bush-Cheney 2000 Presidential Campaign's national outreach and later served on the Bush-Cheney Florida Recount legal team.

In 2011, Governor Rick Perry appointed Dan to serve as a Texas Commissioner to the Education Commission of the States and as a Texas member of the Southern Regional Education Board.

Representative Experience

  • Developed and implemented creative legal solutions for complex business and commercial real estate transactions involving regional, national and international clients.

Education

  • Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of Law
    • J.D.
    • The Barristers, Phi Delta Phi
    • Editor, SMU Law Review - The Journal of Air Law and Commerce
  • Georgetown University
    • Institute on Comparative Political & Economic Systems
    • Barry M. Goldwater Scholar
  • Oklahoma Christian University
    • B.A., American Studies
    • summa cum laude
    • B.S., Accounting
    • summa cum laude

Admissions

  • Texas
  • New York
  • District of Columbia
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
  • U.S. Supreme Court

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