Dan Mauler serves as General Counsel and Secretary at The Heritage Foundation. Mauler first joined Heritage Action for America as General Counsel in December 2022 and serves both organizations in a joint role.

Before joining Heritage in August 2022, Mauler practiced defamation and constitutional law with Clare Locke LLP, the nation’s preeminent plaintiff-side defamation law firm. 

Prior to practicing with Clare Locke, he served in the U.S. Department of Justice as a trial attorney, where he handled numerous high-profile and sensitive cases involving constitutional claims, challenges to federal regulations, and national security issues. As a line attorney, Mauler was responsible for his own cases and appeared “first-chair” in multiple district courts representing the U.S. government. 

In addition to his litigation duties, Mauler was also selected for a detail assignment to the Office of Legal Policy. He served as a nominations counsel and worked on the identification, vetting, and confirmation of judges to the federal bench, including the confirmation of a justice to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Before entering public service, Mauler built a successful commercial litigation practice, first with Hunton & Williams LLP (now Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP) and then with Redmon, Peyton & Braswell, LLP. From early on, his practice led to the courtroom, where he earned wins before both juries and appellate benches in cases involving trade secrets, fraudulent conveyances, and breaches of contract. 

Mauler graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center with honors. While there, he served as an articles editor of The Georgetown Law Journal and as the grand jury section editor of The Annual Review of Criminal Procedure (2005).  

A native Midwesterner, he earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Nebraska, where he majored in business management with a focus on information systems, and where he founded a student-led mock trial program.