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DUSTIN HOFF CELEBRATES 6-YEAR ANNIVERSARY WITH CHRISTENSEN LAW
This month marks the sixth year since Trial Attorney Dustin Hoff joined CLAW. Admitted to the bar in 2014, he joined the firm after spending his first year as an associate at a small firm in Sandusky – his hometown – where he focused on personal injury and criminal litigation, including felony cases ranging from open homicide to distribution of controlled substances.
On Joining CL
Dustin started at Christensen Law in a temporary capacity and stayed on afterward because of the opportunity for development. “Dave invests in people both financially and with his time,” he says. “I was a bit intimidated at first about working with such top-tier trial attorneys, but Dave believes in fostering growth and offered me practical, hands-on learning.”
In his first years at CL, Dustin was largely a solo flyer, responsible for handling a high-volume medical provider practice which he grew exponentially. He now also handles torts, where he focuses on wrongful death, auto and truck accidents, insurance disputes, and other forms of civil and criminal law with trial partners Tom Economy and Dave Christensen.
On Lawyering
His style as a lawyer is accessible, he says. “I like to stay in touch – whether that is with clients, medical providers, members of the legal community, and especially, with people back home in the Thumb.” Not the guy to inundate you with legalese, Dustin says he is more down-to-earth and ready to chat, to check in with what’s going on.
What he loves most about the law? Giving a voice to and protecting the rights of injured victims. “Most people have no experience with the legal system, especially after an accident,” he says. “It’s important we don’t let them fall through the cracks along with their rights.” Wanting always to mitigate the consequences of infringed liberties, Dustin approaches his work with confidence and compassion, regardless of the case circumstance or potential outcome. In his view, there are no large or small verdicts – simply just or unjust ones.
Still early in his career, Dustin has earned numerous accolades, including MILW’s Up & Coming Lawyers of 2021, Super Lawyers’ 2020 and 2021 Michigan Rising Stars, and the 2020 Top Rising Young Attorneys in Consumer Law, among others.
Before the Bar
Prior to becoming a lawyer, Dustin worked extensively with people with disabilities and housing difficulties, having learned volunteerism at an early age at home. “Doing so emboldened my desire to aggressively protect and defend the rights of those who are most at risk through becoming a lawyer.”
During law school, he helped develop a housing assistance program for homeless veterans in Southeast Michigan (Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties) and the Thumb (Huron, Sanilac, Tuscola, Lapeer, St, Clair). At the time, it was the only VA housing program providing direct assistance in Michigan and is still in existence today. (VA housing program)
About Dustin
Dustin has a keen sense of civic duty, and a deeply empathetic nature borne of familial experience with long-term ill-health. In dealing with clients, he draws on his own childhood experiences. A product of rural Michigan, Hoff’s childhood was a lesson in understanding what his clients go through. “I am one of five children. My mother has muscular dystrophy, and my father was a disabled Vietnam Veteran. I saw them struggle every day. Whether it was a major obstacle like walking, or simple routines of daily living – putting on socks, cleaning dishes, making dinner – I saw how it impacted everything, all things the able-bodied take for granted. Many of these are the same challenges victims of auto accidents and negligence endure. My parents’ struggles provided me with firsthand knowledge and an understanding of the suffering our clients experience.”
Educated at Saginaw Valley State University, Dustin also studied abroad during his undergrad years, at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England. He earned his Juris Doctor from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School in 2013.
Dustin comes from a long and proud lineage of Blue Water Area residents – six generations of his family have lived within 100 yards of each other, near the original family home on a cul-de-sac in Sanilac County. Accordingly, he happily travels north to take cases from the region. He and his wife Ashely currently reside in Plymouth with their two dogs, but head north to the Thumb regularly for family gatherings.
