Dermot Lynch

Dermot Lynch, a litigation partner with extensive trial and appellate experience, engages with a wide variety of legal matters at AXS. Be it a complex business dispute, a contingency case, or a regulatory inquiry, Dermot is ready—and has the track record of prior successes—to vigorously represent his clients’ interests.

Dermot spent almost seven years at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Fraud Section, leading investigations in jurisdictions across the United States and the world, as a member of both the Health Care Fraud Unit and the Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit.

As a federal prosecutor, Dermot tallied one of the highest numbers of trials at the Fraud Section, often prevailing at trial against far more experienced defense counsel. Dermot then succeeded in defending trial wins on appeal. He has served as lead counsel in appeals before the Sixth and D.C. Circuits and has secured precedent-setting decisions from both federal courts of appeal.

Dermot is well versed in multiple areas of substantive federal criminal law including health care fraud and kickback schemes, procurement fraud, qui tam actions, securities fraud, money laundering in financial institutions, Bank Secrecy Act violations, and medical provider liability under the Controlled Substances Act.

Dermot’s work at the Fraud Section built upon a prior period in private practice at a top litigation boutique in Washington, D.C., where he represented clients in criminal matters, internal investigations, and major civil disputes. As one of the firm’s only fluent Spanish speakers, Dermot often represented Spanish-speaking clients, including in investigations and business disputes based largely in Latin America. He has regularly communicated in Spanish as part of his legal practice.

Earlier in his legal career, Dermot clerked at the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and then at the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. He also spent time on a pro bono project representing migrant farmworkers in class actions and challenges to the federal regulations governing their work.

Dermot graduated from Yale Law School, where he was a teaching fellow for the first-year writing program and was awarded prizes for the best paper as a first-year student and for excellence in advocacy in Yale’s legal clinical program. For his bachelor’s degree, Dermot attended Loyola University in Chicago on a full scholarship and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

Dermot tries to honor a continued commitment to public service while managing a busy legal career. He is a co-founder of Law School Yes We Can, a program designed to increase enrollment in law school for students from backgrounds under-represented in the profession. He also maintains an active pro bono practice at AXS.

Dermot is licensed to practice law in Washington, D.C., and Colorado.