Daniel J. Koller is an Associate in the firm’s Business & Commercial Law, Litigation & Dispute Resolution, and Maritime/Admiralty Law practice groups. Prior to becoming an attorney, Daniel worked for 16 years in the Marine Industry, bringing a substantial amount of maritime knowledge and experience to his legal practice at Damon Key.
Daniel graduated cum laude from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, William S. Richardson School of Law. He received CALI Excellence for the Future Awards for achieving the highest grade in the class for Contract Drafting and Criminal Procedure. While in law school, he was a member of the Law and Business Organization. He was a Teaching Assistant for Professor Randle DeFalco in Criminal Law and worked pro bono for the University of Hawaii’s Office of Innovation and Commercialization’s legal department. He also served as a Summer Associate at Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert.
In 2003, Daniel earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Marine Transportation from the California State University Maritime Academy. While there, he also earned his USCG Unlimited Tonnage Merchant Marine Officer license and then sailed as an officer on container ships and research vessels throughout the Pacific and Asia Pacific.
Daniel holds three British Standards Institution (BSI) certifications: ISO 9001:2008/2015 (Management) Lead Auditor; ISO 14001 (Environment) Lead Auditor; ISO 45001 (Occupational Health & Safety) Lead Auditor. The BSI certifications qualified Daniel to provide external audits of companies seeking ISO (International Organization for Standardization) certification, which led to auditing ship owing companies and their associated vendors.
The BSI certifications allowed Daniel to further train and become a ship auditor of ship management systems and certify ships to the ISM Code (International Ship Management), ISPS Code (International Ship and Port Security), MLC Code (Maritime Labor Convention), and to HSQE (Health, Safety, Quality, and Environmental) standards.
For more than a decade, Daniel held various positions in various countries with the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), a regulatory body that oversees the design, construction, operation, repair, and management of ships. ABS is authorized by a near 200 countries to issue international certificates on their behalf.
During his time with ABS, Daniel was a Lead Auditor in the areas of Health, Safety, Quality & Environment, International Ship Management, Maritime Labor Convention, and International Ship & Port Security. He also held the position of Senior Regulatory Ship Surveyor of vessels in service, in drydock/repair and new construction. While with ABS, Daniel lived as an expatriate for varying lengths of time in China, Vietnam, United Arab Emirates and South Korea.
When conducting confidential interviews during ship audits, he realized how powerless he was to help sailors who had been harmed by unfair pay, withheld time off the ship, or having to pay for their own medical expenses or food. Running across these unfair labor practices struck a nerve and ultimately led Daniel to pursue a career in Law, where he could assist individuals on foreign-flag ships, shipyards, and even the community at broad.
With a knack for reading, interpreting, and implementing large volumes of regulatory instruction, Daniel’s skills align well with his Law career. However, his ability to be compassionate also plays a vital role, as he finds himself driven to take action when he encounters someone in trouble. His discipline and love of learning help to round out the strengths that he brings to his client work.
Daniel calls San Diego, California home, although he moved frequently throughout his youth. He is fluent in conversational Spanish at an intermediate level. Daniel’s hobbies include boogie boarding, riding bike, and hiking with his wife and kids. When time permits, Daniel enjoys his one true passion – paragliding.
Professional and Community Affiliations
- American Bar Association
- Hawaii State Bar Association
- Access to Justice Room (Honolulu District Court), volunteer
Publications
- State of Hawaii
- U.S. District Court (District of Hawaii)