Everything you wanted to know about Peter Nickles (but were afraid to ask):
* Met his wife, Maria, at lasagna dinner at Harvard. On first date, took her to his criminal law class.
* Father, Greek immigrant John Nickles (nee Nikolaides), wanted him to be a doctor. “They had Cadillacs and dressed well,” Peter Nickles recalled. But premed studies “interfered with baseball practice.”
* Baseball? Really? “I was a catcher. I was a pitcher, too, but I hit a lot of people. I had a very strong arm but I was a little wild.”
* One of his first cases at Covington & Burling involved litigation over land taken by Fidel Castro after the Cuban revolution.
* Nickles was mentored by former Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
* Served as general counsel to the blue-ribbon committee that investigated the shootings of student protesters at Kent and Jackson state universities in 1970.
* Filed class-action lawsuit against D.C. in 1974, alleging mistreatment of the homeless and mentally retarded. The case was litigated for more than 30 years.
* Argued before the Supreme Court in Steadman v. SEC.
* Won D.C. Bar’s pro bono service award in 1998.
* As the city was preparing to argue its historic gun case before the Supreme Court, Nickles had an underling send a late Friday e-mail sacking lead attorney Alan Morrison. Was worried that Morrison was “part of campaign” against Fenty team.
* Ordered then-Attorney General Linda Singer to stop litigation against Bank of America during the city’s nearly $50 million tax scandal.
* Listens to Greek music on his office CD player when he thinks no one else is around.
— Bill Myers
