They’ve Got Next: White Collar Fresh Face Nick Silverman

A client’s unexpected phone call would soon move Nick Silverman to tears. Initially, however, the then-eighth-year associate hadn’t the slightest clue what the recently convicted Iranian banker on the other line was talking about.

“‘I love you and I just want to tell you thank you,’” were the first words Silverman recalls hearing from Ali Sadr on June 5, 2020—a few months after a jury found Sadr guilty of violating U.S. sanctions against Iran and other criminal charges.

It took about 15 seconds of back-and-forth before Sadr realized Silverman hadn’t heard the news, which by day’s end was sending shockwaves through the legal community and mainstream media.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York had asked a Manhattan federal judge to dismiss Sadr’s case over revelations the government had withheld evidence that could’ve exonerated him.

Silverman, as Steptoe & Johnson’s third chair and lead associate on the matter, had been instrumental in crafting the legal strategy that ensured the government’s errors came to light and freed a client he’d come to consider a friend.

“I was terrified at the idea that this guy could get sentenced to prison,” Silverman said.

DOJ’s stunning move to drop the prosecution grew more alarming as the government’s post-trial disclosures trickled out by the week. Per the public disclosures in the docket, they included internal chats in which one prosecutor considered a plan to “bury” exculpatory evidence.

U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, who was elevated this month to serve on the federal appellate bench, proceeded to vacate the conviction, lambaste the prosecutors, and direct DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility to probe their actions.

Other judges have since cited the incident in warning prosecutors about their discovery obligations.

Sadr’s lead trial attorneys were powerhouse Steptoe & Johnson partners Reid Weingarten and Brian Heberlig. Yet it was Silverman who’s credited as the architect of legal tactics that wound up forcing the government’s hand.

“He was the heart and soul of our team in crafting the ongoing demands for evidence we submitted to the government, after the trial was over, that led to one disclosure after another,” Heberlig said. “We briefed a very extensive motion for acquittal and new trial in the alternative and Nick was the key man on the team for that job as well.”

The first major breakthrough was the government’s release of a pretrial witness interview recording. Sadr’s lawyers requested it before the trial, but due to prosecutor miscommunication it never arrived until afterward, despite the government having access to it since three weeks before the trial.

Silverman performed a detailed analysis of the audio to expose evidence favorable to Sadr, which the government had obscured in a written summary of the interview it released before the trial.

“Nick’s detailed knowledge of the case allowed him to really burrow into that issue and highlight how important it would have been for us,” Heberlig said.

In another post-conviction disclosure, Silverman spotted a seemingly innocuous statement characterizing an FBI interview as furthering an investigation into federal crimes. Yet Silverman knew the underlying search warrants were executed by state investigators under state laws.

He cross-matched documents used by the FBI in the interview with metadata proving the FBI had downloaded the documents from the state database to advance their inquiry into a federal crime—violating the Fourth Amendment, Silverman said.

“Ultimately that led to the prosecutors going back and looking at their files and asking, ‘What had happened here?’ because I think our argument made sense to them,” Silverman said.

That incident speaks to a style he began honing as a Georgetown University Law Center student.

“He’s creative and innovative. He’s dogged in the way that he will run down every loose end,” said Bethany Lipman, his law school classmate. “I know that from being his moot court partner in law school—that wasn’t even for a real client.”

Lipman now co-teaches a legal research and writing course with Silverman at their alma mater.

Silverman said he’s looking forward to building his white-collar defense practice, particularly when it allows him to represent individuals against government.

Sadr now lives near Silverman in Washington, D.C. When Silverman got married during the pandemic, he received flowers from Sadr and his wife. The former client also was among the first visitors to get a tour of Silverman’s new home.

“It’s incredibly important that when somebody is at their lowest, that they have another human being whose only job is to look out for their best interest,” Silverman said. “I like the feeling of loyalty that I have when I am looking out for somebody’s best interest.”