Dawn C. Stewart

Of Counsel

Dawn Stewart is based in the Washington, D.C. office and focuses her practice on employment law and commercial litigation.  Her clients consistently appreciate her ability to craft creative legal arguments, her focus on tangible results, and the individualized attention she provides. 

Ms. Stewart has litigated in both federal and state courts in at least 14 states, but primarily focuses on trial and appellate work in the District of Columbia, Virginia, and Maryland.  She has successfully represented employees in matters involving race, sex, sexual orientation, religious, and personal appearance discrimination as well as whistleblowers employed by, for example, a large (over $500B) international oil and gas company, a high-security government contractor, and a police department.  In her commercial practice she has represented small business owners, government contractors, and individuals in administrative actions and civil cases involving the D.C. government, agencies of the Federal government, and other organizations, including a $300B national bank, among others.  

Over the course of her career, Ms. Stewart has also represented Fortune 500 companies and other large organizations in tort and contract matters.  She’s worked on multidistrict cases involving millions of dollars, served as National and Regional Coordinating Counsel for insurers defending premises liability cases under the Federal Court Claims Act, and coordinated an insurance company’s response to over 100 bankruptcy cases nation-wide.  She provided pro bono representation to individuals seeking recovery from the September 11^th Victim Compensation Fund and has provided pro bono representation to indigent elderly clients in the District of Columbia (including one case against a major bank) through AARP’s Legal Counsel for the Elderly program. 

This multi-faceted experience has heightened Ms. Stewart’s dedication to ensuring that the underrepresented have their day in court, and she does not shy away from uncharted waters; she and her partner filed the first private lawsuit against OxyContin manufacturers in 2001.  Ms. Stewart’s primary goal, always, is to find an approach that gets the best result for her client, whether that means a settlement – through an early demand letter, mediation, or other means of negotiated resolutions – or full use of the trial and appellate process.  

Ms. Stewart earned her J.D. from Washington and Lee University.  She is a member of the Virginia, District of Columbia, and Maryland Bars.  She is admitted to practice before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, as well as the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia, the District of Maryland, and the District Columbia.  She is also admitted to practice before the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia, the District of Maryland, and the District of Columbia. 

Ms. Stewart can be reached at dstewart@fedemploylaw.com.