Alexander Silvert served as an assistant Federal Public Defender from 1989 to October of 2020, including 28 years as First Assistant. During his tenure he handled numerous high publicity cases, including representing two defendants in potential federal death penalty cases. In 2000, he was one of several AFPDs named “Federal Defender of the Year” by the National Association of Federal Defenders.

In July of 2013, Silvert began his representation of Gerard Puana, who was charged with the federal crime of destruction of a mailbox. The mailbox was owned by Honolulu Chief of Police Louis Kealoha and his wife, Katherine Kealoha, the third-highest ranked prosecutor for the City of County of Honolulu and head of the Career Offender Unit. The case continued for seven years, with Silvert starting as defender and ending as the key instigator of the federal prosecution of the Kealohas for framing his client. The impact of that case still resonates in Hawaii to this day as there are currently several off-shoot prosecutions of other high-ranking government officials pending.

Silvert was raised in New York City and Vermont. After graduating from UCLA and driving a cab in New York, and a year of post-graduate political science courses at New York University, he attended Boston College Law School where he obtained his JD in 1984.  Silvert worked as a state and federal public defender in Philadelphia before moving to Honolulu in 1989 with his wife and three-week old son to work at the Hawai‘i Federal Public Defenders Office.

In October of 2020 Silvert retired as a Federal Public Defender after 33 years as a public defender. Silvert occasionally lectures at the University of Hawaii Richardson School of Law and is runs his own federal criminal law consultant firm. For 18 years, Silvert served as board chair for the nonprofit organization, Aloha Special Technology Access Center, Inc. (Aloha STAC), which provided assistive technology to people with disabilities.

Silvert is currently writing his second, as yet untitled book. It covers cases Silvert handled which served to educate him as a trial attorney, laying the foundation for Silvert’s ability to investigate and litigate the Puana case. In that sense, it is a prequel to The Mailbox Conspiracy.