Luke Dembosky co-chairs Debevoise & Plimpton’s global Data Strategy and Security practice. He advises companies on managing cyber risks, responding to cyber incidents, and handling related internal investigations and regulatory defense.
Mr. Dembosky is ranked Band 1 by Chambers for Privacy and Data Security: Incident Response, where clients note that he is “sharp as a razor,” “calm, methodical and extremely thoughtful.” He is also ranked Band 1 among a select group of seven U.S. crisis management lawyers, and the only cyber specialist named in the crisis rankings. The Legal 500 US includes Mr. Dembosky among a select group of “Leading Lawyers” on data privacy and protection. Clients describe him as “brilliant, clever, and a leader in this field,” “simply a brilliant, dedicated, extremely talented and yet humble individual” whose “experience [is] untouchable.” He was named by the National Law Journal to its list of “Cyber Security Trailblazers” and by Cybersecurity Docket to its list of the “best and brightest data breach response lawyers.”
Mr. Dembosky joined Debevoise in March 2016 after serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice. In this capacity, he oversaw all national security cyber cases and was the first to manage a new “National Asset Protection” portfolio covering cybersecurity, economic espionage, export control and foreign investment review matters, giving him responsibility over a wide range of technology-related threats. As DAAG, Mr. Dembosky also oversaw the National Security Cyber Specialists network of prosecutors throughout the United States, along with the Foreign Investment Review Staff. He regularly represented DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and in review of international telecommunications licensing matters.
Mr. Dembosky has been involved in leading the DOJ’s response to many of the largest cyber incidents in recent years, serving as the senior DOJ official on the Target, Sony Pictures, Home Depot, Anthem and OPM breaches, among many others. He also received the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award for leading the operation to dismantle the GameOver Zeus botnet that caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to the U.S. financial sector. Mr. Dembosky has been a regular advisor to the senior leadership of the DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, National Security Council and other agencies regarding major cyber cases and related legal and policy issues. He participated in the negotiation of a 2013 cyber accord with Russia and the historic 5-point agreement signed by President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China in 2015 and has co-represented the DOJ in cyber discussions at the United Nations.
From March 2013 to October 2014, Mr. Dembosky 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. From fall 2010 to spring 2013, he served as the Department of Justice’s representative at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. There, 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.
Before joining the DOJ, Mr. Dembosky was a litigation associate with two law firms from 1996 to 2002 and 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.
Mr. Dembosky is Co-Chair of the International Bar Association’s Cybersecurity Task Force, and was selected in 2020 to serve as a member of the New York Cyber Security Advisory Board. He is a member of the first NYU Center for Cybersecurity Legal Advisory Board. He was formerly Vice Chair of the Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Committee of the ABA’s Public Contracts Section and of the Information Sharing and Analysis Organization Governance Working Group.
He is admitted to the bars of Pennsylvania, Delaware and the District of Columbia.
Mr. Dembosky earned his J.D. cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1994, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and the 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.