Dan started working with manufactured home cooperatives, manufactured home communities, real estate investment trusts (REIT’s), apartment owners, and commercial landlords in 2008. He was an attorney with Martin Aequitas, P.A., for a number of years until he took a hiatus to work in the adoption field. During that time, he continued to handle landlord tenant work along with other types of litigation. In June 2025, Dan returned to Atlas Law, the successor to Martin Aequitas, to resume his previous role as counsel to a number of the same clients.
Although the majority of Dan’s legal experience surrounds landlord tenant relationships, including issues from rent and rules to disputes to claims regarding compliance with the Fair Housing Act and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, he has a broad range of experience over his 22-year legal career from many areas of law including criminal, family and civil litigation.
Background
Prior to law school, Dan was a reporter and production manager in the newspaper industry. During that time, he also owned, with his family, a manufactured housing community in West Virginia where he helped manage the community and oversaw maintenance and expansion of the community. Following his return to Florida in 1998, he continued working in the newspaper industry until starting law school at Stetson University College of Law in 2000. After graduating, Dan worked for the Office of the State Attorney for the Tenth Judicial Circuit before going into private practice in 2005. Since 2008, Dan has worked in real property litigation and transactions.
In addition to his role as an attorney, Dan served as Executive Pastor at two different Tampa Bay area churches, and continues to serve in that capacity at a church he helped plant in 2020.
Personal
Dan has been happily married since 2003, and he and his wife have two beautiful daughters. Dan enjoys outdoor activities including camping (glamping in his recreational vehicle), hunting, fishing and scalloping. He also enjoys working around the house and five acre yard, and personally performed much of the construction work on his family’s new home.
Education
Graduated with a J.D. from Stetson University College of Law in December 2002. Graduated with B.A. in English Writing from West Virginia State University, in December 1998.
Admitted to the Florida Bar on September 15, 2003