Luke Dembosky is a litigation partner based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office and is a member of the Cybersecurity & Data Privacy practice and White Collar & Regulatory Defense Group. His practice focuses on cybersecurity incident preparation and emergency response, related civil litigation and regulatory defense, as well as national security issues.
Mr. Dembosky joined Debevoise in March 2016. Prior to joining the firm, he served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security in the National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. In this capacity, Mr. Dembosky was the first to manage a new “National Asset Protection” portfolio covering all cybersecurity, economic espionage, export control and foreign investment review matters, giving him responsibility over a wide range of technology-related threats. In addition to working closely with the senior leadership of the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Council, Mr. Dembosky oversaw the division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and the National Security Cyber Specialists network of prosecutors throughout the United States. He also oversaw the Foreign Investment Review Staff and in that capacity regularly represented the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and in review of international telecommunications licensing matters.
From March 2013 to October 2014, he served as Deputy Chief for Litigation in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Department of Justice, where he supervised all cybersecurity and intellectual property crime prosecutions by the 35 attorneys in the section.
Mr. Dembosky was the senior official responsible for managing the Department of Justice’s investigation and prosecution of numerous major hacking incidents, including the cyber breaches of Sony Pictures, Target, Home Depot, Anthem and the Office of Personnel Management, among many others. He also managed the Department’s cutting-edge operation to take down the GameOver Zeus botnet, for which he received the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in 2015, and was involved in coordinating the takedown of the Silk Road online marketplace. Mr. Dembosky co-represented the Department in negotiations leading to a cyber accord with Russia in 2013 and the historic 5-point agreement signed by President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China in September 2015.
Before moving to the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, Mr. Dembosky served as the Department of Justice’s representative at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. For two-and-a-half years, he managed the Department of Justice’s transnational crime portfolio at the embassy, represented the United States in high-level diplomatic engagements with Russia and other countries, advised the Ambassador and other senior U.S. officials, and worked to build international cooperation on cyber, intellectual property and other matters. In 2012, he also co-represented the Department of Justice in cybersecurity negotiations in the United Nations Group of Government Experts.
From 2002 to 2010, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where he prosecuted numerous large-scale, national and international cybersecurity and intellectual property crime cases. He also served in the Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Unit and conducted investigations related to complex financial crimes and money laundering. For his prosecution of U.S. v. Max Ray Butler, also known as the “Iceman” case, Mr. Dembosky received multiple awards, including a superior performance award from the U.S. Secret Service. The case is the subject of the books Kingpin and DarkMarket and an episode of the television series American Greed. Mr. Dembosky was a litigation associate with two law firms from 1996 to 2002, and he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Richard L. Nygaard of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1994 to 1995.
He is admitted to the bars of Pennsylvania and Delaware and to appear before the Western and Eastern Districts of Pennsylvania, District of Delaware and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Mr. Dembosky earned his J.D cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1994, where he was elected to Order of the Coif, Order of the Barristers and was Managing Editor of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. He received his B.A., with High Distinction, from Pennsylvania State University in 1990.
