Justin Dillon
Partner

[email protected] | P (202) 640-4427

A former Assistant United States Attorney, Justin Dillon now uses his years of litigation and investigative experience to defend clients in complex, high-stakes white-collar criminal and campus discipline cases.  Justin combines a meticulous approach to investigating the facts with a deep knowledge of criminal and administrative procedure to vigorously protect his clients’ futures and reputations.

Justin helps his clients fight what are often the toughest battles they will ever face.  In his white-collar practice, he has successfully defended the General Counsel of a public company in a foreign-bribery investigation, helped a government contractor avoid criminal charges after a lengthy federal investigation, and represented numerous individuals and small-business owners. He also frequently represents government employees under investigation for alleged ethical or criminal misconduct, including a former Cabinet secretary, a former Senate-confirmed head of a federal agency, and numerous other federal employees and federal prosecutors.  He has extensive experience with Offices of Inspector General and the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).  He is also the former white-collar crime columnist for the website Above the Law; a collection of his columns is available here.

Justin has gained nationwide attention for his work representing students and professors in campus misconduct cases, which he and his firm have handled at more than 100 schools nationwide. Along with his colleague Chris Muha, he co-authored Title IX Hearings and Litigation: A Practitioner’s Guide, published by The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and available here to any member of FIRE’s Legal Network.  He also co-authored, with his partner Matt Kaiser, The KaiserDillon Guide to Defending Yourself in a Campus Sexual Assault Case, which is available here.  While many of his cases are successfully resolved on campus, Justin is not afraid to take it all the way to court—he was the first lawyer in the country to win summary judgment against a university in a campus sexual assault case, and he has never lost a Title IX lawsuit. (Click this link for more information about the firm’s Title IX Defense practice at our dedicated Title IX website, which includes video FAQs that have helped demystify these proceedings for many families.)

Immediately before joining KaiserDillon PLLC, Justin spent five and a half years as a federal prosecutor in Washington, DC, where he led more than 100 Grand Jury investigations, tried more than 60 criminal cases, and handled more than a dozen appeals.

Justin has also been published or quoted in more than a dozen national newspapers and magazines, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, National Review, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.  Here is a sample:

• “Biden’s Title IX changes would roll back fairness and due process on campus,” Justin Dillon & KC Johnson, The Washington Examiner, July 5, 2022
• “The Future of Title IX: A Conversation with Justin Dillon,”  Doug McKelway, The Washington Examiner, June 15, 2021
• “Ending due process: Reinstating Catherine Lhamon at the Dept. of Education is a mistake,” Justin Dillon & Stuart Taylor, Jr., USA Today, June 14, 2021
• “Why Does Joe Biden Hate Due Process?”, Justin Dillon & Candice Jackson, National Review, March 25, 2021
• “The ACLU vs. due process: The nonprofit takes a surprising stand against more rights for those accused on campus,” KC Johnson & Justin Dillon, New York Daily News, May 21, 2020
• “Coronavirus Is No Excuse to Delay the Education Department’s New Title IX Regulations,” Justin Dillon & KC Johnson, National Review, March 30, 2020
• “DeVos’s Rules Bolster Rights of Students Accused of Sexual Misconduct,” (quoted), The New York Times, May 6, 2020
• “New Title IX Proposal Would Restore Fairness in Sexual-Misconduct Cases,” Justin Dillon, The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 19, 2019
• “The Education Department wants to make campus sexual misconduct hearings fairer. It should go further.”, Justin Dillon & Matt Kaiser, The Washington Post, September 5, 2018
• “The Common App will no longer require disclosure of criminal history. But what it still asks is more troubling.”, Justin Dillon & Scott Bernstein, The Washington Post, August 23, 2018
• “Lawyers: DeVos is bringing due process to campus sexual assault cases,” Justin Dillon & Matt Kaiser, The Washington Post, September 11, 2017
• “Kushner to face intel committee on Monday behind closed doors,” (quoted), The Washington Post, July 23, 2017
• “Everything You Think You Know About Campus Sexual Assault Is Wrong: A Review Of ‘The Campus Rape Frenzy,’” Justin Dillon, Above the Law, March 23, 2017
• “Why We Are Suing the Government on Behalf of Students Accused of Sexual Misconduct,” Justin Dillon & Robert Shibley, Law & Crime, April 13, 2016
• “The Hidden Perils of Affirmative Consent Policies,” Justin Dillon & Hanna L. Stotland, The Harvard Crimson, March 22, 2017.
• “Absurdity reigns in campus sexual assault trials,” Justin Dillon, The Los Angeles Times, April 21, 2016
• “How to punish campus sexual assault,” Justin Dillon & Matt Kaiser, The Los Angeles Times, November 24, 2015
• “Why it’s unfair for colleges to use outside investigators in rape cases,” Justin Dillon & Matt Kaiser, The Los Angeles Times, September 16, 2015
• “The White House Flunks a Test on Sexual Assault,” Justin Dillon & Matt Kaiser, The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2014

Justin has been invited to speak before organizations including the American Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Virginia State Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, the Colorado Bar Association, Harvard Law School (video here), the Defense of Freedom Institute (video here), the Federalist Society, the University of Kentucky’s Center for Research on Violence Against Women, the Association of Title IX Administrators, the Higher Education Consultants Association, and the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

He is a member of the Edward Bennett Williams Inn of Court, an invitation-only professional organization devoted to white-collar practice, and the John Carroll Society.  He teaches trial advocacy at Harvard Law School and has guest-lectured on criminal law and Title IX matters at Harvard, George Washington University, American University, and the University of Maryland. He is the former chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee of the D.C. Bar and a member of the Board of Directors of Families Advocating for Campus Equality, a nonprofit organization devoted to bringing greater due process protections to campus disciplinary proceedings.

Justin has been recognized by Chambers & Partners in Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations in Washington, DC. He has also been recognized by Best Lawyers© in the category Criminal Defense: White-Collar; named by Super Lawyers as one of the Top Rated White Collar Crime Attorneys in Washington, D.C.; and selected by Washingtonian Magazine as one of Washington’s Best Lawyers in Criminal Defense.

Education

• J.D., Harvard Law School. Editor, Harvard Law Review; Captain, Winning Team, Ames Moot Court Competition
• B.A., Duke University, magna cum laude

Government Service

• Assistant United States Attorney, District of Columbia
• Trial Attorney, Housing & Civil Enforcement Section, Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice
• Clerkship, The Honorable David M. Ebel, United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit