Pillsbury Adds to Growing Corporate Investigations Roster with Arrival of Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Dylan Aste in San Diego

“Pillsbury has been aggressively expanding our litigation and investigations team to meet our clients’ needs, especially in California,” said global head of Litigation Deborah Baum. “Dylan has built a great track record of success at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, leading some of the office’s most high-profile matters, and we are excited to have him on our team, and introduce his capabilities to our clients.”

Aste has extensive experience developing and implementing multifaceted case strategies and achieving favorable outcomes in complex investigations, fraud and prescription pharmaceuticals cases, tort litigation, and other complex disputes. At the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego, he served as Civil Opioid Coordinator, leading investigations and prosecutions of opioid and prescription drug offenses and negotiating resolutions with publicly traded companies as well as individuals. He also prosecuted cases of complex procurement and healthcare fraud against government contractors, medical device manufacturers, hospitals, and prescription drug entities; civil rights abuses; and cross-border enforcement actions. As an AUSA, he twice received Certificates of Commendation from the Civil Rights Division and received recognition from federal agencies.

Prior to spending the past decade at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Aste worked in private practice. He was a judicial extern to U.S. District Judge Marilyn L. Huff and U.S. Magistrate Judge William McCurine and, at the San Diego Superior Court, externed for Judge Jeffrey B. Barton. 

Aste is a past president of the San Diego Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. He currently serves on the boards of the University of San Diego School of Law Alumni and San Diego State University Alumni, and is also the co-chair of the Lawyer Representatives for the Southern District of California. Aste was recently appointed to serve as a co-chair of the American Bar Association’s White Collar & Criminal Litigation Committee.

“We are thrilled to welcome Dylan to our growing San Diego office,” said Callie Bjurstrom, the managing partner of Pillsbury’s San Diego office. “He is well known and highly regarded in the greater San Diego litigation community and has an incredible network of friends and colleagues here. He is a great fit for our office and for our firm.”

Aste is the latest addition to Pillsbury’s nationally ranked Corporate Investigations & White Collar Defense practice in the U.S. Since 2021, those additions have included former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and former U.S. Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue; former Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Chris Caffarone; former National Coordinator of the DOJ’s Computer Hacking and Intellectual Property Program Mark Krotoski; former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and former Assistant State Attorney for Miami-Dade County Stephen Demanovich in Miami; former federal prosecutor Kimberly Jaimez; Ronald Cheng, a former U.S. Attorney’s Office Division Chief and U.S. Department of Justice Resident Advisor in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing; former Meta Integrity lawyer and trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section in Washington, D.C., Tony Phillips, and Adam Goldberg, who has extensive experience in Asia-related investigations. Internationally, the firm welcomed Audrey Koh to head up a local corporate investigations team in London.

Aste will join partner Paul Fraidenburgh and a team of litigators who work with him. Fraidenburgh joined in 2023 from Buchalter APC, where he served as Chair of Litigation for the Orange County and San Diego offices.

Pillsbury’s award-winning team of more than 200 litigators works with clients around the world to help them successfully resolve disputes, both in trial winning the old-fashioned way and out of court, leveraging that win record so opponents know we mean business. The firm has garnered dozens of top-tier recognitions as a result of its exceptional litigation prowess and is regularly identified as one of the most feared law firms CLOs and GCs come up against in litigation according to BTI Consulting Group.