Benjamin Civiletti, the seventy-third Attorney General of the United States, died on October 16, 2022. Mr. Civiletti graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1961 with an LLB degree. After clerking for Federal District Judge Calvin Chestnut, he became an Assistant United States Attorney in Baltimore, Maryland for two years before entering the private practice of law. Prior to being sworn in as Attorney General during the Carter administration upon the resignation of Attorney General Griffin Bell, Mr. Civiletti headed the Criminal Division until being nominated for Deputy Attorney General in May 1978. He was sworn in as Attorney General on August 16, 1979. As Attorney General he argued before the International Court of Justice on behalf of Americans being held captive in Iran during the Iran Hostage crisis and before the Supreme Court in support of the government’s right to denaturalize Nazi war criminals in Fedorenko v. U.S.

Mr. Civiletti was Chairman Emeritus and retired partner in the law firm Venable LLP in Washington, D.C. until his death at the age of 87. He is survived by his wife, Gaile and their three children.