Andrew Dawson

Andrew Dawson is a first-chair trial lawyer and former federal prosecutor. Prior to returning to Keker, Van Nest & Peters, he served for nine years at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, leading and supervising a wide range of white-collar criminal matters and sophisticated transnational investigations. His practice focuses on responding to government investigations and prosecutions, conducting internal investigations, and leading trial teams in matters before juries, judges, and arbitrators.

During nearly a decade as a federal prosecutor, Andrew led investigative teams in matters of national significance relating to intellectual property, cyber intrusions, corporate fraud, public corruption, pharmaceutical fraud, and other white-collar issues. He supervised multiple sections within the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including the Special Prosecutions and National Security Section, advising and directing investigative teams in national security, public corruption, civil rights, money laundering, and cyber-related matters.

Andrew was lead trial counsel in the first-ever prosecution of a corporate executive related to mishandling the response to a data breach.  That matter concerned the coverup of a breach at a major ridesharing company, and Andrew also secured a parallel corporate resolution that has been highlighted by DOJ leadership as a model for corporate criminal investigations. Prior to that, Andrew worked on a high-profile prosecution arising out of a trade secret dispute between two major Silicon Valley companies, which resulted in a guilty plea for a former corporate executive and for which the prosecution team was awarded the Director’s Award from the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys. He was also trial counsel in a white-collar racketeering case involving $400 million in pharmaceutical fraud, handled the investigation of an infamous hack of a prominent social networking site, and secured and first-ever criminal conviction under the Lobbying Disclosure Act. 

As a result of his years of public service, Andrew has developed deep ties and familiarity with local and national enforcement and regulatory agencies, as well as with federal courts in Northern California and across the country. He also possesses strong knowledge of enforcement trends impacting companies in the Bay Area and beyond.

Andrew was an associate with the firm from October 2010 to June 2011 and again from October 2012 to September 2015. He served as a law clerk to Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Charles R. Breyer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, and Judge William A. Fletcher of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Andrew earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as the managing editor of the Stanford Law Review. He earned a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities: Modern Thought & Literature and a minor in German Studies from Stanford University.