OAG: AG Bio - Peter Nickles

Peter J. Nickles was confirmed as Attorney General for the District of Columbia on November 18, 2008. He previously served as General Counsel to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty since the Mayor took office in January 2007. With decades of expertise in public service law, Nickles is responsible for defending the city against lawsuits, protecting citizens through affirmative lawsuits against those who take advantage, and coordinating legal policy on matters that deal with compliance with court orders and transitions from court intervention.

Nickles began his legal career upon earning his law degree at Harvard Law School in 1963 and was admitted to the District of Columbia Bar the following year. As a practicing attorney, Mr. Nickles was a senior litigation partner at Covington & Burling LLP. Throughout his career, he tirelessly fought for the rights of poor and disadvantaged persons through social, institutional and political reform. Mr. Nickles’ commitment to public service dates back to his early days as a lawyer when he was counsel to the Jackson State Force and the Kent State Force, reporting to the Scranton Commission on Campus Unrest from 1968-1970. From 1970-1975, he cochaired Covington’s Neighborhood Legal Services Program (NLSP) in Washington, DC. He served as an adjunct professor at Howard University from 1980-1992.

Protecting the rights of the District’s most marginalized citizens is what Mr. Nickles is most passionate about. As class counsel in Dixon v. Barry, filed in 1974, he helped secure significant relief for thousands of homeless and mentally retarded residents of the District of Columbia. This case, which required nearly 30 years of litigation, resulted in the creation of community-based services for persons with mental illness.

With an abiding interest in the rights of prisoners, Mr. Nickles, in Twelve John Does v. District of Columbia and in John Doe v. District of Columbia, was appointed by the United States District Court to represent all of the prisoners confined to the District of Columbia’s Central and Maximum Security Facilities regarding a plethora of unconstitutional conditions. In Inmates of the Modular Facility v. District of Columbia, he skillfully negotiated an effective Consent Decree designed to cure constitutional deficiencies in security, health care, sanitation, and fire safety. In Women Prisoners v. District of Columbia, a class-action litigation brought on behalf of the District’s women prisoners, he won an injunction requiring the District of Columbia to provide adequate reproductive health care, to take steps to prevent sexual abuse, harassment and other relief. Under his leadership, these cases have been instrumental in reducing violence, alleviating overcrowding and improving Medicaid and mental health services for prisoners in the District of Columbia.

When Washingtonian named Mr. Nickles one of Washington’s 50 Best Lawyers, the magazine wrote: “What distinguishes Nickles from other corporate lawyers is that he probably gives away more hours to good causes than anyone in town.” He has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees to charity. For his unrelenting years of public service, the District of Columbia Bar presented Mr. Nickles with the Pro Bono Service Award in May 1998.

In his role as Acting Attorney General, Nickles stepped up efforts across a variety of areas to improve safety and the quality of life of District residents, including: