Daniel J. Lanahan, a former Menlo Park resident who served as a legal officer for the Menlo Park Police Department in the 1970s and 1980s, has been awarded an honorary doctor of laws degree by Sonoma State University.
Mr. Lanahan, founder of the Santa Rosa law firm, Lanahan & Reilley, was a resident of Menlo Park between 1968 and 1972. He moved to Redwood City in 1972 and to Sonoma County in 1989.
The bulk of his work in the past quarter century has involved class action and mass tort litigation.
Acting as the national coordinating counsel, he negotiated a case involving the food supplement, L-Tryptophan, that resulted in a settlement awarding major U.S. pharmaceutical companies more than $3 billion dollars from a Japanese company.
Mr. Lanahan teaches at Sonoma State University, Empire College School of Law in Santa Rosa, and San Francisco Law School.
