Daniel Sheehan

Early life

Sheehan was born in Glens Falls, New York, and grew up in Warrensburg, New York. He attended Northeastern University before transferring to Harvard College, graduating in 1967 with a degree in American Government Studies. He then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1970 with a Juris Doctor degree.

He was briefly a member of the Army's ROTC program at Northeastern University, but resigned after questioning the sanity of the instructors. He claims he was told that he might have to kill non-combatants in Vietnam.

Over his career, Sheehan has participated in numerous legal cases of public interest, including the Pentagon Papers case, the Watergate Break-In case, the Silkwood case, the Greensboro massacre case, the La Penca bombing case and others. He established the Christic Institute and the Romero Institute, two non-profit public policy centers. Since 2015 Sheehan has lectured on American history, politics and the assassination of John F. Kennedy at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Sheehan is currently Chief Counsel of the Romero Institute, where his focus is the Lakota People's Law Project. Sheehan and The Lakota People's Law Project participated in legal cases related to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. In 2013 Sheehan published Daniel Sheehan: The People's Advocate, a memoir, through Counterpoint Publishing.

At one time, Sheehan was legal counsel to the Jesuit U.S. national headquarters in Washington, D.C.