Erwin Jay Shustak

Erwin Shustak is one of the founding partners and heads the Firm’s Litigation and Arbitration Department. He is the managing partner of the Firm.

Mr. Shustak specializes in litigations, trials, arbitrations and appeals of complex business, securities and financial fraud disputes. He has handled and overseen several hundred litigations and arbitrations, in Federal and State Courts and arbitration forums across the country. He specializes in securities and financial fraud cases.

He has represented public and private companies of all kinds, including financial institutions, governmental agencies, including the FDIC and the Resolution Trust Corporation, manufacturing firms, broker-dealers, hedge funds, registered representatives and defrauded investors. His vast trial and arbitration experience includes business, securities and financial fraud; breach of contract; real estate transactions and disputes; employment disputes; unfair competition, non-compete and restrictive covenant cases; and intellectual property disputes including copyright and trademark infringement.

Erwin was voted one of San Diego’s “Best of the Bar” in 2014 and a Top Litigator of 2014 by American Lawyer and Corporate Counsel magazines;  honored as a “Super Lawyer”® of 2015 (business and securities litigation); 2009 (business litigation); 2008 (business litigation) and in 2007 (securities litigation) by Southern California’s “Super Lawyers” magazine; selected as one of the “Top Lawyers in San Diego” and “One of the Top Lawyers and Law Firms You Need to Know” in the 2013 and 2014 annual attorneys editions of San Diego Magazine and featured on the cover of the 2012 edition of “Top Rated Lawyers in New York” published by The National Law Journal and The American Lawyer. American Lawyer Media and Martindale Hubbell also named Erwin a “2013 Top Rated Lawyer in Securities Law”. Erwin was honored as a “Top Rated Lawyer of 2013″ in the field of Commercial Litigation by Corporate Counsel and The American Lawyer magazines published by American Legal Media. The American Society of Legal Advocates selected Erwin as “One of the Top 100 Litigation Lawyers in California for 2014″. He was selected by the Editors of The San Diego Daily Transcript as one of the Transcript’s “Top Ten Attorneys in 2005″, was nominated by that same publication as one of the “Top Influentials in 2010″ and selected by the Transcript as one of the “Top Influentials in 2012″. Erwin has received the highest rating-AV- from Martindale Hubbell since 1985, a testament to the fact that his peers rank him at the highest level of professional excellence.

Mr. Shustak began his career at the prominent firm of Kaye Scholer Fierman Hays & Handler in New York City. He is admitted to the State and Federal Courts of California, New York and New Jersey; the Second, Third, Fifth and Ninth Circuit Federal Courts of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.

He serves as an arbitrator for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (formerly the National Association of Securities Dealers), the National Futures Association and the Arbitration Forum and is a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America; the Association of Business Trial Lawyers of San Diego; the New York and California State Bar Associations and the San Diego County Bar Association where he has served on the Mandatory Fee Arbitration Committee since 2000.

Erwin also is a member of the Legal and Compliance Society of SIFMA, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Erwin resides in Del Mar, California and travels extensively serving the Firm’s clients. He is an avid sailor and skier and is active in a number of community organizations and various pro bono projects. Erwin is a member of the Roundtable of the San Diego Chamber of Commerce and an active member of International-Referral, an international association of legal and accounting professionals which provides our Firm with access to top professionals across the globe.  Erwin is a member of the Disputes Committee of that organization.