About Us

Danko Meredith was founded on a simple premise: people who have been catastrophically injured, or families who have lost someone they love, deserve lawyers who are willing to take their case all the way to trial if that’s what it takes to get a fair result.

Mike Danko started his career at a Wall Street law firm, representing the country’s largest financial institutions in high-stakes commercial litigation. The work was demanding and the clients were powerful — but he found himself more interested in representing people than institutions. He left to start a plaintiffs’ practice representing individuals and families against exactly the kind of well-resourced defendants he had once defended. Kristine Keala Meredith, who spent the early part of her career defending hospitals, physicians, and corporations in complex litigation, joined for similar reasons — and brought with her a defense-side understanding of how the other side builds its case, which she now uses on behalf of plaintiffs.

Over more than three decades, that combination of institutional experience and trial willingness has taken the firm’s attorneys into courtrooms across the country, trying cases to verdict against manufacturers, utilities, government entities, and corporations of every kind. Some of those cases have made headlines. Most haven’t. All of them received the same preparation and the same willingness to go the distance.

How We Work

We take on corporations, government agencies, and insurance companies who injure ordinary people, and we’re known for taking cases all the way through trial and winning. That reputation matters even for clients who would prefer to avoid court entirely — it’s precisely our willingness to try a case that encourages defendants to offer a fair settlement in the first place.

We leave no stone unturned. In many of our cases, finding the proof has meant questioning hundreds of witnesses and reviewing thousands of documents. We don’t stop until we understand exactly what happened and why — and then we hold the responsible parties accountable, regardless of how powerful they are.

Most people never imagine that one day they’ll need to bring a lawsuit. We understand that the process can feel unfamiliar and overwhelming, and we see it as our job not just to litigate your case, but to explain what’s happening at every stage and make sure you’re never guessing about what comes next.

What to Expect as a Client

Your first conversation with us is free, confidential, and without obligation. We’ll ask about what happened, answer your questions honestly — including if we don’t think you have a strong case — and explain what the process would look like if you decide to move forward.

We take every case on contingency. You owe us nothing unless we recover money on your behalf. We advance the costs of investigation, expert witnesses, and litigation ourselves.

You will have direct access to the attorney handling your case. Depending on the nature and complexity of your matter, that may be one of our named partners or another attorney on our team — but you will always know who is handling your case and how to reach them.

We keep you informed. Serious cases can take time, particularly when they involve extensive investigation, expert analysis, or coordination with other claimants in a large-scale matter like a wildfire. We tell clients upfront what to expect in terms of timeline, and we communicate proactively rather than leaving you to wonder about the status of your case.

We prepare every case as if it will go to trial. Even in the cases that ultimately settle — and most do — that preparation is what produces a fair outcome. Defendants and their insurers know which firms are ready to try a case and which are not, and they negotiate accordingly.

Our Team

Danko Meredith’s attorneys bring together decades of trial experience across cases involving catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death, aviation accidents, and wildfire litigation.

Mike Danko — Founding Partner. Mike has tried cases against powerful and well-financed corporations nationwide for more than three decades.

Kristine Keala Meredith — Managing Partner. Kristine brings both plaintiff and defense-side litigation experience to the firm’s most complex wildfire, aviation, and catastrophic injury matters.

Shawn R. Miller — Trial Attorney & Managing Attorney. Shawn manages the firm’s wildfire litigation docket and has extensive trial experience across catastrophic injury and civil rights matters.

Jennifer Zarich — Trial Attorney. A former elementary school teacher, Jennifer brings a client-centered approach to aviation, wildfire, and catastrophic injury litigation.

Joshua Watson — Of Counsel. Joshua handles complex civil litigation involving wildfire, employment, and civil rights matters, and helps lead the firm’s use of technology in litigation.

See our full team →

A Firm That Cares About the Outcome — For Our Clients, and Beyond

We care about our clients, and we understand that a lawsuit is rarely just about money. By holding wrongdoers accountable, our clients help ensure that what happened to them is less likely to happen to someone else. Several of the cases we’ve handled have led directly to changed industry practices, new safety equipment, or regulatory attention — not because that was our primary goal, but because thorough litigation tends to surface exactly the kind of institutional failure that regulators and industries eventually have to address.

If you or someone you love has been seriously injured, or you’ve lost a family member due to someone else’s negligence, we’d like to hear from you.

Representative Cases

• $14.9 million jury verdict for passenger injured during single-engine aircraft crash landing
• $2.6 million settlement for a policy holder whose insurance company wrongfully refused to pay $225,000 in medical bills
• $10 million court judgment against a large developer for the breach of a promise to timely fund $400,000 escrow
• $20 million settlement for a pedestrian injured by a utility explosion
• $9.8 million jury verdict for a woman injured in a snowboarding accident
• $11 million settlement for passenger injured in fire
• $2.9 million jury verdict against a maintenance facility for a pilot injured in helicopter crash
• $9.5 million jury verdict against the State of California for the family of bicyclist killed in crosswalk
• $10 million jury verdict for the widow of a pilot killed in a helicopter crash
• $10 million confidential settlement against manufacturer for woman injured by consumer product
• $32.5 million wrongful death settlement in case arising from foreign plane crash
• $2.2 million court judgment against state of Hawai’i for a bicyclist who fell after hitting a road hazard
• $12 million wrongful death settlement against maintenance facility in helicopter crash case
• $50 million court judgment against a candy manufacturer for the wrongful death of child
• $9.75 million settlement for a family injured in the crash of a tour helicopter
• $13.3 million jury verdict for family of 67-year-old pilot killed in crash of single-engine Cessna
• $15 million settlement for wrongful death