Commercial Litigation
Daniel F. "Dan" Diffley
Recognized in Best Lawyers since 2012 Awarded Practice Areas
Biography
Dan Diffley serves as co-chair of Alston & Bird’s Litigation & Trial Practice Group. A courtroom veteran, he focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation, including class action defense, insurance matters, products liability, professional malpractice, and other commercial disputes. As lead trial counsel, he has extensive experience representing Fortune 500 companies at trial, arbitration, and every other facet of commercial litigation. In nearly 20 years of practice, he has experience in a wide range of commercial disputes, including products liability, class actions, breach of contract, real estate, fraud, tax controversy, franchise, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of fiduciary duty, professional liability and malpractice, insurance coverage, construction, transactional disputes, and estate/trust litigation.
Dan is listed in The Best Lawyers in America©. He is an experienced trial lawyer and has tried cases in federal and state courts around the country. In addition, Dan has extensive appellate experience and has represented clients in federal and state appellate courts throughout the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
Dan received his J.D. from the Wake Forest University School of Law in 2000, where he was a member of the Wake Forest Law Review and moot court board. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, in 1996 from the University of Richmond, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Overview
- Wake Forest University, J.D., graduated 2000
- University of Richmond, BA, graduated 1996
- Georgia, State Bar of Georgia
- American Bar Association - Member
- Atlanta Bar Association - Member
- Georgia Bar Association - Member
- Georgia, State Bar of Georgia
- American Bar Association - Member
- Atlanta Bar Association - Member
- Georgia Bar Association - Member
- Wake Forest University, J.D., graduated 2000
- University of Richmond, BA, graduated 1996
Client Testimonials
Awards & Focus
Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® 2026 for work in:
- Commercial Litigation
Additional Areas of Practice:
- Insurance Law
News & Media
Additional Information
Case History
Cases
- Experience
- Lead counsel in multiple lawsuits for one of the world’s largest construction products companies.
- Representation of an AmLaw100 law firm in a professional malpractice action.
- Lead counsel in multiple state class actions for a nationwide insurance carrier.
- Lead author of a successful cert petition to the Supreme Court on behalf the world’s largest flooring products company.
- Multi-year representation of ownership of a major mixed-use development in midtown Atlanta in various lawsuits.
- Successfully defended the inventors of the combined PET/CT scanner, the 2000 TIME Magazine Invention of the Year, in a challenge to ownership by a major U.S. university.
- Part 2
- Obtained dismissals of multiple federal class actions on behalf of a nationwide insurance carrier for insurance claims arising out of Hurricane Katrina.
- Lead counsel for a national general contractor in a two-week jury trial in federal court.
- Obtained a jury verdict in federal court in favor of a publicly traded manufacturer of medical imaging equipment on a claim for breach of contract related to the purchase of medical imaging equipment. Upheld on appeal.
- Obtained, as lead counsel, a complete defense verdict after a jury trial on behalf of an Atlanta real estate developer for alleged fraud and breach of contract in connection with a real estate transaction.
- Part of an Alston & Bird team that obtained a $32 million arbitration award in a fraud, breach of contract and federal RICO action on behalf of a real estate developer.
- Obtained a jury verdict in federal court on behalf of a regional construction company in a fraud and breach of contract action related to the purchase of construction equipment and a construction business.
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