C. Daniel McGillicuddy

C. Daniel McGillicuddy

Attorney C. Daniel McGillicuddy was attracted to the law to help people in difficulties that are in need of a helping hand. At William Matter, P.C., Dan is able to realize this career ambition as all our clientele comes to us because they have been damaged due to the negligence of others and are in need or professional assistance.

He attended Canisius College and was involved in college activities as the News Editor for the campus newspaper and was the student representative to the College’s Planning Board. He learned the value of hard work through his employment in a waterfront grain mill, the Peavey Company and the American Elevator, where he worked to put himself through college and part of law school. While working the waterfront, Dan was a union laborer, belonging to the American Federation of Grain Millers. He attended at the University of Dayton School of Law. While at law school, he had an internship with the Hon. John Koessler, Court of Common Pleas, Montgomery County.

Dan’s legal experience includes arbitrations, jury trials and appellate practice in numerous motor vehicle, premises liability, construction accidents, animal liability and product liability cases throughout New York State. His prior legal experience includes employment in both plaintiff and defendant firms, and in house counsel offices of major insurance companies where he gained a comprehensive knowledge of the strategies of insurance companies while trial counsel, experience which can be utilized to exhaustively fight on your behalf.

Dan has given multiple presentations for continuing legal education programs for the Erie County Bar Association. All these presentations arose from actual cases he handled with William Mattar. He has researched and presented on statutes and case law pertaining to the safe and lawful operation of bicycles in New York State in all settings. This presentation also focused on preparing and trying cases involving plaintiffs injured while operating bicycles. He also analyzed how the case law and the statutes impacted on proving a plaintiff’s case for personal injuries in a law suit.

Dan has also researched and presented on statutes and case law involving car crashes with motor vehicles and municipal emergency vehicles. This presentation analyzed an injured plaintiff’s burden of proof against defendant municipal vehicle drivers and municipalities. The presentation also focused on the legal requirements necessary to successfully obtain a settlement or verdict in a crash with a municipal emergency vehicle such as a snow plow, a road maintenance truck, and police or fire vehicle.

Another presentation given addressed road signage. This presentation focused on the statutes, regulations and case law governing the correct placement and proper selection of appropriate road signs in order to alert pedestrian, bicyclists and motorist of changes and potential hazards around and on roads. The presentation also addressed the location of and type of traffic signals and crosswalks in relation to the characteristics of a particular road. The burden of proof and proper of an injured plaintiff and the proper investigative techniques necessary to develop documentation to meet that burden of proof was discussed.

Dan has attended several trial practice seminars in order to incorporate recent techniques into cases he handles in order to achieve the best results for the firm’s clients. He has attended a seminar on minor impact crashes dealing with injured plaintiffs involved in low speed low property damage impacts and how to present these issues to juries.

Other trial practice seminars attended include learning how to develop and present an injured plaintiff’s economic and non-economic damages to maximize a plaintiff’s recovery. He incorporated techniques from a deposition seminar to obtain favorable negligence testimony from defendants to gain admissions of fault from adverse parties.

Seminars in opening arguments and jury selection allowed him to sharpen his skills in selecting the right jury for each individual client and presenting an opening argument tailored to the particular case. Courses in development of Rules as they pertain to their application to the defendant’s conduct have also been employed to the benefit of his clients.

In witness preparation and focus group seminars Dan has applied new advance, in these areas of trial practice, to better prepare his clients for their testimony in depositions and trial. In the focus group seminar, he applies the seminar techniques to craft arguments which will have an impact on jury deliberations on a case, and to determine which issues will be important to a potential jury, through the use of presentations of case facts pre-trial volunteer groups.

Dan has attended numerous medical and chiropractic presentations which have assisted him in better understanding medical issues pertaining to the cause of plaintiff’s injuries to crashes or falls. These presentations have also dealt with ways to rebut the defendant’s medical and chiropractic expert opinions. He has also attended several presentations on accident reconstruction given by experts in the field. These presentations have outlined the proper use of data obtained from vehicles and crash scenes in order to build a negligence case against defendants.

Dan has been admitted to the New York State bar for over twenty years. He is admitted in the Federal District Court, Western District of New York, and has litigated several cases at the federal level. He is a member of the legal fraternity, Phi Alpha Delta Waite Chapter.

Dan and his wife Jackie have two children, a daughter who graduated cum laude from SUNY at Buffalo and is pursuing a master’s degree in teaching English as a second language at SUNY at Buffalo. Their son graduated from the University of Chicago, Phi Beta Kappa, with a degree in chemistry. While at Chicago his son was selected a Goldwater Scholar, this is a scholarship established by the United States Senate to recognize undergraduate achievement in scientific research. Their son is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in chemistry at Harvard University. In their spare time they like to kayak local waterways and the Finger Lakes, and have also taken up bicycling. He enjoys jazz and attend local jazz concerts on a regular basis.

Practice Areas:

• Car Accidents
• Truck Accidents
• Motorcycle Accidents
• Bicycle Accidents
• Pedestrian Accidents