About the Author  (a/k/a “Don” or “Donnie”):
Education:
Dartmouth College, BA, Magna Cum Laude, 1965
Vanderbilt University School of Law, JD 1968

Professional:
Ten Years 1969-1978: American General Insurance Group - Nashville and Houston; Vice President and General Counsel of American General Life Insurance Companies, 1976-1978; Member Southeastern Claims Conference - Seminar Presentation 1971: “The Coming Tort of Outrage;” Real Estate and Mortgage Investment; Insurance Company Accounting and Regulation; Health and Life Insurance Claim Management and litigation.

Fifteen Years 1968, 1978-1990, 1997: Private General Practice of Law in Alabama, Oklahoma and Arkansas - Bankruptcy, Insurance Defense, Plaintiff Personal Injury; Commercial and Bankruptcy Law, School Law including F.O.I. and Open Meeting Issues, Coal Mining Transactions and Regulation; Business Litigation;

               –Chairman, Oklahoma Appellate Public Defender System, 1989-1990; 

               –Special Justice, Oklahoma Temporary Court of Appeals, 1981-1982.

Seven Years 1991-1997: Insurance Regulation in Arkansas and Texas; as Assistant Commissioner and Chief Legal Counsel 1991-1994 under Arkansas Governors William Jefferson Clinton and Jim Guy Tucker; Seminar Presentation to National Association of Insurance Commissioners on “ERISA - The Failures of the U.S. Department of Labor in MEWA Regulation;” Acting Insurance Commissioner, Associate Commissioner and Special Assistant to Commissioner under Governor George W. Bush, Governmental Affairs, Legislative Liaison, Public Relations.

Five Years 1998-2002: Universities of Oklahoma and Arkansas: Employee Benefits Administration - Insurance, Pensions, NCAA and SEC Rules Compliance Administration, Student/Athlete Eligibility and Academic Consultation.

Publications:
Co-author (”Ghost”)–along with Bud Shrake of Austin, Tx., of  the biography of Oklahoma University Head Football Coach Barry Switzer, i.e., Bootleggers Boy 1990, William Morrow & Co., NYC, New York Times “Non-Fiction” Best Seller; Author: Death Spiral, 2004-2005; Author, How George W. Bush Betrayed America, 2006.

Hundreds of essays, many published in Daily Oklahoman, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Tulsa World, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Northwest Arkansas Morning News.