Justin Buell
Justin Buell founded Scout Lunar in 2021, in succession to two earlier practices. From 2009 to 2015 he ran Buell Private Political Management, advising seven American families on political giving — including the Chouinard family of Patagonia and Larry Birenbaum, inventor of Fast Ethernet — and organizing events for President Obama in three of those families' homes during the Obama presidency. From 2013 to 2014 he also served as Director of Development at NextGen Climate, raising capital across the country for Tom Steyer's climate initiative.
His political work began earlier, on the Kerry campaign in 2003 and 2004. He opened the campaign's field office in Creston, Iowa, ran four counties through the caucuses, then served as state field director in Utah for the primary. He returned to the Bay Area as a finance associate, then back to Iowa as Regional Field Director for Polk County through the general election. He went on to direct Northern California finance for Steve Westly's gubernatorial primary in 2006. Across three successive practices, Justin has placed more than $38 million of Democratic capital on behalf of clients, across eleven election cycles dating to 2004 — with a sabbatical in 2016.
Outside the firm, Justin has served on the Democratic National Committee's National Finance Council since 2009, on the National Democratic Redistricting Committee's Advisory Board since 2018, on the Board of Directors of Planned Parenthood Northern California's Action Fund from 2014 to 2021, and on the advisory board of Organizing for Action during the Obama presidency. He holds a J.D. from the University of California, College of the Law, San Francisco. He lives in California.