DUSTIN A. PUSCH

PARTNER

Dustin Pusch is a partner with Clare Locke LLP. Since joining Clare Locke, Dustin has represented Fortune 500 companies and small businesses, executives and educators, doctors and patients, and public figures across the globe. He has represented individuals and companies in the financial, political, education, medical, pharmaceutical, non-profit, and film and entertainment industries against numerous media outlets, including Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and CBS. Through pre-litigation correspondence, Dustin has promoted fair and accurate reporting about his clients and has killed misleading proposed stories by The Washington Post, 60 Minutes, and The New York Times.

Dustin currently represents Dominion Voting Systems in defamation litigation against Fox News and Fox Corp., Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, MyPillow and its CEO Mike Lindell, former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, OAN, and Newsmax. Dustin has extensive experience in all aspects of the litigation process, working on all stages of defamation and complex commercial cases, including pretrial, trial, post-trial, and both state and federal appeals. He has briefed, argued, and won motions for summary judgment in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and has won countless pre-trial motions.

Dustin played a key role, both before and during trial, on the Clare Locke team that won a $3 million jury verdict from Rolling Stone magazine for false and defamatory statements in a now-debunked viral article about an alleged gang rape at UVA. Dustin also facilitated a confidential settlement of a multi-million-dollar dispute between his client –a successful businessman and international adventurer –and a space tourism company that warranted that it had the rights from the Russian Federal Space Agency to provide a flight around the moon. Utilizing the international Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“UDRP”), Dustin has secured the ownership rights to an unlawfully registered and harassing domain name and website that infringed on the common law trademark rights of his client, a high-profile hedge fund manager.

Most recently, Dustin helped obtain a $52.125 million arbitration award for former star hedge fund managing director Daniel Michalow against his former employer, DE Shaw, and total absolution for the firm’s false allegations of sexual misconduct against Mr. Michalow. The award was the “largest ever handed down by Finra for a dispute within the industry, and the largest overall for the last five years.”

Dustin was recognized by the National Law Journal as one of its 2021 Elite Trial Lawyers Rising Star of the Plaintiffs Bar and as a 2022 D.C. Rising Star.

Prior to joining Clare Locke, Dustin worked in higher education developing new and cutting-edge graduate degree programs at The George Washington University and managed complex policy projects at The National Academies.

Dustin is a member of the District of Columbia and Virginia Bars. He earned his J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University School of Law. Dustin earned a B.A., cum laude, from Boston College.

ADMISSIONS

• Commonwealth of Virginia
• District of Columbia
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
• United States District Court for the District of Columbia
• United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia