About Mr. Bestor

During his 30-year legal career, Geoffrey Bestor has served in senior positions in government and represented companies and individuals in complex criminal and civil matters in private practice. Mr. Bestor was a federal prosecutor for many years, served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice, and was Staff Director of an oversight committee in the United States House of Representatives.  While in private practice, he primarily represented clients in connection with simultaneous investigations by federal criminal and civil enforcement agencies, state Attorneys General and legislative bodies, and in related private lawsuits.  He also has extensive experience in general civil litigation.  Mr. Bestor currently represents clients in whistleblower cases in court and before federal agencies.

Mr. Bestor began his career in 1981 with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York.  In 1983 he joined Dickstein Shapiro in Washington, D.C.  In 1989, Mr. Bestor was appointed Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.  During his seven-plus years as a federal prosecutor, he tried over 50 cases to jury verdict, argued approximately 15 cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and several more before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, and conducted in excess of 60 grand jury investigations.  He received multiple Special Achievement Awards for Sustained Superior Performance as an AUSA.  In 1997, Mr. Bestor joined the Office of Legal Counsel of the United States Department of Justice.   Later that same year, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Policy Development, U.S. Department of Justice.  In the latter position, Mr. Bestor developed and coordinated major policy initiatives of the Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and Associate Attorney General.   As part of these responsibilities, Mr. Bestor served as the Justice Department’s representative in discussions and negotiations with the White House, other executive departments and agencies, Congress, and the Judicial Conference.

Mr. Bestor returned to private practice in Washington, D.C. in 1999, at Dickstein Shapiro.   Among many other matters, Mr. Bestor represented a major energy company in its successful litigation against the Governor of the state of California, arguing an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in which the court, in addition to reversing the lower court, ordered that the lower court enter judgment in favor of Mr. Bestor's client.   He opened his own practice in 2005, continuing his work in federal investigations and related civil litigation, as well as general civil litigation.  From 2007 to 2009, Mr. Bestor served as Staff Director of the Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.  Mr. Bestor currently has his own practice.

Mr. Bestor received his Bachelors degree magna cum laude in 1976 in European Cultural Studies from the American College in Paris.  He received his law degree cum laude in 1981 from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an Editor of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif.  He served three two-year terms as a member of the District of Columbia Bar Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee.   Mr. Bestor is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and New York, and is admitted to practice before multiple federal courts.

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