About Harvey
Harvey Silverglate began his academic path at Princeton University, where he earned a B.A. in 1964. He continued his studies at Harvard Law School and received an LL.B. in 1967. Those years shaped the legal outlook he carried into a long career in and around the courtroom.
He joined Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP as of counsel in 1969. That early association has defined much of his professional life. Over the decades he has appeared in a range of federal and state venues. His admissions include the U.S. Supreme Court, multiple federal courts of appeals—the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 11th Circuits, and the Federal Circuit—as well as the U.S. Court of Military Appeals and the courts of Massachusetts.
Silverglate’s career has been marked by steady involvement in organizations that intersect law and public life. He is a current member of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. He co-founded and chairs the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, an organization concerned with campus speech and academic freedom. He served as a co-founder and chair of the Massachusetts Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. He also holds a position as an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. Those roles reflect recurring themes in his work, including civil liberties and the defense side of criminal practice.
Colleagues describe a lawyer who moves comfortably between litigation and public advocacy. He has litigated in appellate courts and engaged in institutional work aimed at shaping debate about rights and free expression. The mix of courtroom practice and policy involvement has given him a platform that extends beyond individual cases. He has taken part in conversations about how law intersects with academic life and governmental power, often bringing a defense-oriented perspective to those debates.
Today he remains of counsel at Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP. His practice continues to draw on the procedural and appellate experience he developed over many years, and on his long-standing interest in matters that affect individual rights and institutional accountability. He currently practices as of counsel at Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP, concentrating on criminal defense and civil liberties matters.
