Dustin McDaniel

Mike Beebe, the 45th Governor of Arkansas, was a fellow law student and friend of the family.

Dustin Blake McDaniel (born April 29, 1972) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 55th Attorney General of Arkansas from 2007 to 2015.

A member of the Democratic Party, he a founding partner of the Little Rock, Arkansas law firm McDaniel Wolff, PLLC.

As of 2024, McDaniel is the very last Democrat to have held the position and the office of Arkansas State Attorney General to date.

McDaniel's practice focuses on Attorneys General investigations, consumer protection and administrative law issues, multi-state litigation, antitrust laws, tobacco laws, gaming laws, Medicaid fraud and digital privacy laws.

He is licensed in Arkansas as well as the District of Columbia and enjoys a national law practice representing individuals and some of America's largest law firms and corporations.

His clients’ business fields range from healthcare to technology, as well as within regulated industries such as tobacco and medical cannabis.

McDaniel assists his clients with their interactions with State Attorneys General from both parties, Governors and Arkansas state government.

He has also assisted other attorneys general with preparing for SCOTUS arguments.

Dustin McDaniel was born in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

He is the oldest son of Bobby McDaniel and Melody Gammon Konnerth.

McDaniel has one sibling, Brett Anthony McDaniel, who is an attorney in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

His father, Bobby, graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Law after Dustin was born.

McDaniel attended Jonesboro Public Schools, graduating from Jonesboro High School in 1990.

He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, where he was a student at the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

He is a member of the Xi Chapter Kappa Sigma fraternity and the President of the Interfraternity Council.

He graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Public Administration in 1994.

He served as a full-time patrolman with JPD from 1994 to 1996.

In 1996, McDaniel enrolled at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's William H. Bowen School of Law.

During his time at Bowen, he was elected Honor Council Prosecutor and served as Assistant Articles Editor for the UALR Law Review.

From 1996 to 2000, he served as a part-time uniformed officer while attending law school.

In 1998, a mass shooting occurred at Westside Middle School, killing four students and one teacher and wounding 10 other students.

McDaniel saw the news breaking on CNN and drove to Jonesboro to report for duty and go to the scene.

He spoke of it often in his public life.

McDaniel's father, Bobby McDaniel, filed suit on behalf of the families of the dead against the shooters and the manufacturers of the firearms used.

After two and a half years, he graduated cum laude with his Juris Doctor in January 1999.

McDaniel continues to serve on the law school's Dean's Advisory Council.

After college, McDaniel joined the Jonesboro Police Department (JPD) in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

He attended the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy (ALETA) in Camden, Arkansas.

He is a graduate of ALETA Class 94-D.

He remained at McDaniel & Wells, P.A. from 1999 to 2007.

From 2000 to present, McDaniel has been assigned to the Department's Training Division as a Part-Time Category II member of the force.

McDaniel received several awards during his private practice career, including a Golden Gavel Award from the Arkansas Bar Association for serving as Chair of the Consumer Law Handbook Committee in 2000 and a Distinguished Service Award from the Arkansas Bar Association for overseeing the Consumer Law Handbook's translation into Spanish in 2001.

He also received the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law Young Alumnus Award in 2002.

In the same year, he was appointed to the Arkansas Bar Association Law School Committee and admitted into the Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

In 2003, McDaniel was the only attorney in Arkansas to serve on the Legislation committees of both the Arkansas Bar Association and the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association.

The suit was filed before Dustin McDaniel had a law license, but nonetheless it was used by former Senator Gunner DeLay in 2006 as evidence of McDaniel's lack of trustworthiness on Second Amendment Issues.

McDaniel fought back by touting his law enforcement background and that he was an avid hunter.

In 2017, the families were awarded an uncollectible judgment of $150 million against perpetrators Mitchell Johnson and Andrew Golden.

After law school, McDaniel joined his father's law firm, McDaniel & Wells, P.A. (now McDaniel Law Firm ) in Jonesboro, Arkansas.