L. Rush Atkinson⏐Partner

Rush Atkinson is a distinguished former federal prosecutor who handles complex corporate and government investigations, white-collar litigation, congressional inquiries, and the nation’s most sensitive national security and cybersecurity matters. He also served as a top official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he was responsible for overseeing key criminal, cyber, and national security matters.

Rush counsels some of the world’s top tech, telecommunications, healthcare, and other companies on extremely sensitive matters, including criminal and civil investigations at both the federal and state levels. Rush represents clients in some of the Department of Justice’s largest white-collar matters, including corporate criminal investigations, False Claims Act litigation, and federal regulatory inquiries. Rush also advises clients on emerging trends in law and regulatory enforcement, including state Attorneys General investigations and key national security issues. Rush routinely helps clients think strategically around shifting enforcement landscapes, from new national security regimes to domestic enforcement priorities. 

From 2022 to 2024, Rush was an Associate Deputy Attorney General, serving as one of the most senior counselors to the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General. His responsibilities covered the DOJ’s most consequential and sensitive decisions, and he frequently served as the Department’s representative to the National Security Council and the White House.

Rush also co-chaired the DOJ’s Corporate Crime Advisory Group, which developed significant revisions to policies governing the prosecution of white-collar crime, deferred and non-prosecution agreements, voluntary self-disclosure programs, and the use of corporate monitors. Rush was also central to the DOJ’s focus on the intersection of white-collar matters and national security, including corporate accountability for sanctions, export control, money laundering, and Bank Secrecy Act violations.

From 2017 to 2019, Rush served as an Assistant Special Counsel under Robert S. Mueller III, investigating cyber and social media interference in U.S. affairs by foreign actors. 

Previously, as a federal prosecutor and Assistant Chief in the DOJ’s Fraud Section, Rush prosecuted high-profile corporate matters involving market manipulation in foreign exchange markets, securities fraud by public corporate executives, insider trading, FCPA violations, healthcare fraud, and other white-collar matters. He handled five federal criminal jury trials, supervised dozens of others, and led the DOJ’s criminal investigations into COVID-19 fraud during the pandemic.  

Rush joined the DOJ through the Attorney General’s Honors Program and received numerous distinctions during his time in government service, including the Attorney General's David Margolis Award for Exceptional Service—the highest career award presented by the Department of Justice. Rush also received the Attorney General’s John Marshall Award in connection with overseeing the DOJ’s response to Russian sanctions and export control evasion, and the Assistant Attorney General’s Award for leading the DOJ’s response during the COVID-19 pandemic to fraud and abuse of government aid programs.

Rush has published a variety of academic articles on criminal and national security matters, including in the Georgetown Law Journal, Vanderbilt Law Review, New York University Law Review, and Stanford Journal of International Law. He is also a member of the Edward Bennett Williams American Inn of Court.