Summary of Oral History of Richard A. Hibey
by James E. Rocap, III
“I prefer the term ‘trial lawyer’ instead of ‘litigator.’” And what a trial lawyer he was! Dick Hibey was born to be a trial lawyer, something that became very clear from the speaking skills he exhibited early in his education, although it would take several years for Dick to realize that being a trial lawyer would become his life’s work.
Born to immigrant parents in June 1941, Dick learned early the virtues of hard work and dedication to a skill. His parents, both Lebanese, raised four children in Utica, New York, expecting each one of them to become highly educated. After Dick earned his master of laws as a Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown University Law School, he remembers his father “rubbing his hands together and saying, ‘Well, what’s next? Where do you get your next degree?’” Said Dick: “That’s what motivated my parents. They never spoke about anything other than our going to school and getting an education because that’s what you could do in America.”
One of Dick’s earliest recollection of public speaking was in the fifth grade at Sacred Heart School in Utica. “The Mother Superior asked me at my mother’s request to stand up in front of the 8th grade class, and this was when I was in 5th grade, and recite from memory the Gettysburg Address.” Once in high school, Dick volunteered to enter a Rotary Club speech contest, which led to an enviable string of victories under the tutelage of one of the teachers there. Brother Oswin not only worked with the young orator, he brought in outside talent to critique him. Dick recalls one weekend in high school, when he went to LeMoyne College to be observed and critiqued by one of the teachers there, who wore a hearing aid. Midway through his speech, the hearing aid came out, Dick did not understand and stopped, only to be told that the Father was focusing on his hand gesticulations and management to improve his style. Thereafter, and throughout his lengthy career in front of juries, Dick always remained conscious of his gestures.
After a string of oratorical competition successes, high school came to an end and Dick matriculated to LeMoyne College. There were less speaking opportunities there, and while he dabbled in debate, he did not like it because it seemed too hypothetical. Although there were no lawyers in the Hibey family, he had only met one or two while in college, and he thought he “couldn’t cut it” because he was a “horrible standardized test taker,” Dick ultimately decided to apply to law school. Georgetown was recruiting at LeMoyne, and Dick had the good fortune to be interviewed by Ken Pye, then the Associate Dean of Georgetown. That began a years long close relationship with “one of the most important persons in my life.”
While in law school, Dick studied, worked for Ken Pye as a research assistant, and would often walk across the street to court to observe motions day. By this time, he knew he wanted to become a “trial lawyer.” And that he did. He spent a year after law school in the prestigious Georgetown Prettyman Fellowship program, under the tutelage of William Greenhalgh. That launched his trial career. This from a 1965 article: “In 1965, Richard Hibey was a typical student in the middle of his class, recalls Georgetown Law Professor William Greenhalgh. He had yet to find his calling in life. The day Hibey entered the Prettyman Fellowship program, that all changed.”
In his oral history, Dick recalls in detail his life as a Prettyman Fellow, followed by two additional years as a defense lawyer with what was then known as the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, later to become the public defender service. He talks about his initial trials in misdemeanors, followed by felony trials, and his initial “solo flight” before Judge Schweinhaut on the District Court. For several years, including his years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Dick tried on average two cases each week, appearing before some of the giants of the District Court in the 1960s and early 1970s, including Judges Jones, Gesell, Bryant, Spottswood Robinson, and others. He relates many stories about his interactions with these legendary judges, both as a defense attorney and a prosecuting attorney. Among others, Dick tells the story of the high profile, successful prosecution of Billy Austin Bryant, who had killed two FBI agents while trying to serve an arrest warrant, followed by another story on advice he received from Judge Jones when he had the opportunity to join the prosecution team on the Daniel Ellsberg trial as a third chair (following that conversation he decided to turn down the “third chair” opportunity), followed by yet another story about Judge Bryant’s assistance and advice when Dick as a prosecutor had “sliced the salami a little too thin” (Judge Bryant’s words) in withholding potential discovery material in a criminal case before Judge Smith.
Having left the U.S. Attorney’s office in 1971 to enter private practice with Surry, Karasik and Morse, Dick discusses several of his notable cases during his ten years at the firm. And then, in 1981, he launched Anderson, Hibey Nauheim and Blair, where he was to become famous for his defense of spy Jonathan Pollard (sentenced to life in prison by Judge Aubrey Robinson), and then former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife. Dick recalls the challenges he faced in each case, including Pollard’s and his wife’s decisions (unknown to him at the time) to speak proudly to the press shortly before sentencing about their espionage activities. “I was really apoplectic,” Dick recounts, “because it had undone what was to be at the essence of my plea for mercy.” He discusses those cases at length, followed by his later defense of Clair George, Deputy Director of Operations at the CIA, who had been accused of lying to Congress during the course of the Iran Contra affair. There were two trials, both before Judge Royce Lamberth. The first ended in a mistrial because of a hung jury. The second resulted in acquittals on all but two counts. George was pardoned shortly thereafter by President George H.W. Bush. Dick continued as a leader of the criminal defense bar, as well as a seasoned civil litigator, throughout the 1990s until his retirement in 2017, first at Winston & Strawn and later at Miller Chevalier. Not surprisingly Dick became a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and a highly respected trial lawyer wherever he appeared.
Along the way, he represented Mary Mapes, Dan Rather’s producer for many years, who was forced to resign and faced an internal investigation – conducted by CBS and former Attorney General Richard Thornburg – for alleged lapses in reporting for a 60 Minutes episode on then-President George Bush’s early military record. The affair ultimately became the subject of the 2015 movie “Truth,” starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford. The opening scene and first line of the movie: “Mr. Hibey will see you now.”
Other cases of note included his defense of Sun Diamond Growers Cooperative following an investigation by Independent Counsel Donald Smaltz, in a trial before Judge Ricardo Urbina, which ultimately made its way to the Supreme Court, two high profile criminal cases in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (U.S. v. Costin, Skeddle & Bryant and U.S. v. David Geisen) and multiple cases in the District Court for the District of Columbia involving civil cases brought against the Palestinian Authority. And finally, Dick recounts his involvement as counsel to former federal Judge and U.S. Senator George Mitchell, in connection with his investigation on behalf of the United States Olympic Committee into the selection of Salt Lake City as the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
When asked “what makes a great career for a trial lawyer?”, Dick’s final words in his oral history are these:
I would say that approaching these cases with a degree of humility about what I was going to encounter kept my ego in check and allowed me to inhabit the skin of the client. The cases were never about me. I was careful not to endorse a cause but rather to understand what caused the difficulty that brought the client to me. I guess it’s another way of saying I tried to keep my understanding of the case to be simple. In turn, it gave me the opportunity to appreciate the client’s point of view to the full extent that that point of view should be honored. It gave me the opportunity to tell the client in certain circumstances that he could not defend the matter along the lines originally insisted upon. And it freed me up to appreciate the perspective of the case without it being dictated to me irrevocably by the client.
I also felt that the truth needed to be respected at all times, even when it hurt. It was also a joy to be associated with like-minded lawyers who understood that an unpopular client nonetheless deserved the best representation that could be given in the circumstances.
Dick Hibey passed away on February 19, 2024. His gift of his oral history, taken in 2023, is a rare opportunity to read about the life and career of a genuine trial lawyer.
