Dan Kapelovitz

ABOUT DAN KAPELOVITZ

Dan Kapelovitz is a Los Angeles-based criminal defense attorney, and a Certified Criminal Law Specialist. Dan also teaches Criminal Procedure and Evidence at the People’s College of Law.

Dan Kapelovitz earned his law degree from UCLA School of Law. He was President of UCLA’s the Animal Law Society, and a member of the UCLA Law Review. He volunteered for the Innocence Project and the Prisoner Re-Entry Project, and worked on “special circumstances” murder cases and other criminal matters for the Los Angeles County Public Defender as part of UCLA’s Capital Punishment Clinic.

During law school, Dan externed at the Working People’s Law Center and served as a law clerk for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Animal Protection Unit, working on animal abuse and neglect cases.

After graduating law school, Dan was an associate attorney at a large civil law firm, where he was the lead attorney on a successful asylum case, worked on a successful pro bono prisoner civil rights case, and litigated employment, Intellectual Property, entertainment, and other matters.

Dan then clerked for a federal judge for the United States District Court of the Central District of California. 

After his clerkship, Dan began devoting his efforts to help those who have found themselves caught up in the criminal justice system, including animal rights protestors whose First Amendment rights have been violated.

Before becoming a lawyer, Dan had a successful career in journalism.  He was the Features Editor of Hustler Magazine, and wrote more than 100 articles for numerous publications, including the LA Weekly, OC Weekly, Bizarre Magazine, Men’s Edge, and more.  At Hustler Magazine, Dan won the Project Censored Award for his reporting on depleted uranium, and was the editorial point man for Larry Flynt’s First Amendment lawsuit against the Pentagon.