A Giant Passes

I note the passing of a giant of the District of Columbia Bar Earl J. Silbert.

My generation of Assistant United States Attorneys revered Earl as no other. Many, many people I deeply respect regarded him as the perfect leader of a U.S. Attorney’s office from a standpoint of both integrity and competence.

I first saw Earl in action in the spring of 1972 when I was a 1L at Georgetown and thinking the law might not be for me.

My friend Jim Hibey’s older brother Richard suggested I go see a criminal trial.

I sat in on this case that Earl prosecuted and was transfixed, totally sold on the idea of criminal trial work.

I first worked with Earl in the mid-1980s when I was a newly-minted assistant bar counsel and he served as a hearing committee chair. 

I was fortunate later to try a multi-week case against him in which he defended a partner in a prominent law firm accused of dishonest billing.

He was a relentless litigator who challenged me at every turn but always with the utmost professionalism.

The case was remanded several years after we had argued it in the Court of Appeals.

Editor’s note: To clarify, I was never an AUSA. I regularly litigated with the D.C. office in the 1970s and 1980s. (Mike Frisch)