Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Vermont Bar Journal, Fall 2017, Vol. 48, No. 3 | Page 5

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN
Interview with Dan Maguire
Teri Corsones: Today is September 8,
2017 and I’m meeting with incoming VBA
Board President, Daniel Maguire, in Mont-
pelier. Dan, on behalf of Vermont Bar
Journal readers everywhere, thank you for
taking time to meet with me today.
Dan Maguire: Teri, thank you very much.
I feel very privileged and honored to be
here. the love of Vermont had been entrenched
during my time here in law school. I missed
the people, the beautiful views, and most
of all the friends I had made. I did an about
face, came back to Vermont, took the bar
exam the following summer and have been
here ever since without a single regret. I
have raised my family here and am strongly
connected to our state.
TC: The honor is all ours! First, can
you tell us a bit about your background;
where you grew up, and where you went
to school.
DM: Sure, I grew up in Rhode Island with
my immediate and extended family. I went
to college at the University of Rhode Island
where I studied political science, and after I
graduated I spent some time traveling and
working before I decided I wanted to come
to the beautiful state of Vermont to attend
Vermont Law School. TC: What law jobs did you have after
your return to Vermont?
DM: When I returned to Vermont I brave-
ly opened my own p ractice. I look back and
say I was brave, but at the time I was prob-
ably more naïve than brave. An attorney in
South Burlington, Paul Morwood, provided
me an opportunity by offering me an of-
fice in his office in exchange for title work
and legal research. It allowed me to build
a practice. It was during that time that I re-
connected with my original interest in crim-
inal defense; I was yearning for litigation
experience and started to investigate op-
portunities in public defense. The Defend-
er General’s Office had ad hoc assignments
and I stepped out, asked for the opportu-
nity and started my criminal defense career.
I kept my eyes open for other contract op-
portunities and a conflict public defender
contract in Middlebury became available.
The requirement was that I be physical-
ly present in Addison County so I rented
space from the Probate Judge at the time,
Chester Ketchum. Federal Judge William
Sessions was the Public Defender in Mid-
dlebury then, and as you can imagine, with-
in a short period of time I had some very,
very serious cases.
TC: What led you to follow the law
school path?
DM: A childhood friend of mine had a
father who was a talented and well-known
attorney in Rhode Island by the name of
Eugene F. Toro. I recall looking up to him
and being fascinated by his work. He was
one of the premiere criminal defense attor-
neys in the state. He allowed me to shad-
ow him when I was in high school, and I
was hooked. I caught the bug for the prac-
tice of law and for litigation, in particular.
His energy and dedication were contagious
and he encouraged me to think about law
as a career. Before going to law school I
spent a few years working in restaurants
and in the service business, but eventual-
ly came around and found myself clear in
my intentions and arrived at Vermont Law
School in the late summer of 1985.
TC: Did you consider ever settling any-
where other than in Vermont?
DM: When I first came here, I fell in love
with the state, but it always was my inten-
tion to return to Rhode Island. The pull to
go to work with Mr. Toro was great and my
family was there. All four of my grandpar-
ents were immigrants from Ireland, and
I am a first generation college graduate.
Our family was close and it had always
made sense to me that I would live close to
them. So, when I graduated from Vermont
Law School, I took the Rhode Island bar
exam and was admitted and started work-
ing there for a short period of time. While
all of those aspects pulled me back to RI,
www.vtbar.org
TC: Well, what a great lawyer to be con-
nected with.
DM: Absolutely. I got to know Bill, and
if he had a conflict or if his office had a con-
flict, the cases came my way. There was
another attorney in Middlebury who made
himself available to me, and that was Peter
Langrock. I didn’t know that he was such a
well-known and respected attorney at the
time. He was just this very friendly attor-
ney who was always at the courthouse. But
I was very green, and he was very helpful
to me and I owe him a big debt of grat-
itude. I worked in Middlebury for several
years, and then applied for a job with the
Attorney General’s Office. Through that of-
fice I had the opportunity to represent the
Department of Corrections, which was an
incredibly rich and educational experience.
It was during this work that I met Michael
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL • FALL 2017
Kennedy. Michael and I worked together
representing the Department of Correc-
tions, along with John Treadwell, who’s
now the Chief of the Criminal Division in
the Attorney General’s Office. After work-
ing at the AG’s office I changed direction
and decided to teach as an adjunct profes-
sor at CCV, the Community College of Ver-
mont, and I also taught at Woodbury Col-
lege.
TC: What did you teach?
DM: I taught basic criminal law and pro-
cedure, and I also taught family law.
TC: You have a very varied background!
What was next?
DM: While I enjoyed teaching and brief-
ly explored a permanent role in the educa-
tion world, the practice of law and litiga-
tion pulled me back. I invested and chose
to open up my own office. I had enjoyed
the previous experience when I owned my
own business and chose to re-invent in that
way. Building a law office up from nothing
in the state of Vermont is no easy task. I
took it one step at a time to find myself
where I am today.
TC: What year was that?
DM: 2002. I networked. I reached out
to all the attorneys who I knew, I let them
know what I was doing, and I said, “if you
have any cases that you don’t want, please
send them my way.” I also reached out to
the Defender General’s Office to find out if
they had any work. Matt Valerio offered me
a contract and I snapped it up. I found my-
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