E. Barrett Prettyman Jr.

E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., prominent District of Columbia attorney died on November 4, 2016 after a brief illness. A resident of Washington, DC and Ocean City, MD, Mr. Prettyman was 91. Mr. Prettyman was predeceased by his beloved wife, Dr. Noreen McGuire Prettyman who died in 2011. He is survived by two children from an earlier marriage, E. Barrett “Ty” (Terri) Prettyman III of Oakton,VA and Jill Prettyman (Rainer) Lukoschek of Houston, TX and three grandchildren, Max Lukoschek, and Drew and Mark Prettyman. He was the son of the late Lucy (nee Hill) and Judge E. Barrett Prettyman, Sr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, for whom the Federal Courthouse is named.

After his graduation from St. Albans School in Washington in 1943, Mr. Prettyman enlisted in the US Army and saw combat in France and Germany with the 84th Division. Following his service, Mr. Prettyman graduated from Yale University and the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Decisions Editor of the Virginia Law Review, won the 1953 Moot Court competition and was winner of the prize for best Law Review Note. Immediately following law school, Mr. Prettyman became law clerk to three Supreme Court Justices: the Honorable Robert H. Jackson, the Honorable Felix Frankfurter, and the Honorable John M. Harlan. Mr. Prettyman was clerking at the Court during both the decision and the decree in the school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. To date, he is the only person to have clerked successively for three different US Supreme Court justices.

After clerking Mr. Prettyman joined Hogan and Hartson in Washington D.C. as an associate. He left Hogan temporarily to take the position of Special Assistant to the Attorney General and to the White House during the Kennedy Administration. Notably, during his time at the White House, Mr. Prettyman traveled to Cuba and personally negotiated with Fidel Castro for the exchange of 1,113 Bay of Pigs prisoners.

Following his government service, Mr. Prettyman returned to Hogan and Hartson as a partner where he became an expert in many fields. Over the years, Mr. Prettyman argued l9 cases in the Supreme Court, and served as Chair of the Supreme Court Judicial Fellows Commission.

From 1998-1999, at the request of city leaders, Mr. Prettyman again temporarily left Hogan and Hartson to serve as Inspector General, pro bono, of the District of Columbia.

Mr. Prettyman was also an accomplished novelist. He won an Edgar Allen Poe Award for his novel, Death and the Supreme Court. He was a past president of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

Mr. Prettyman was the first President of the District of Columbia Bar and President of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and the D.C. Bar Foundation and was Vice President of the Supreme Court Historical Society. Mr. Prettyman’s illustrious career brought him numerous honors, including receiving Common Cause’s 1999 Public Service Achievement Award. In 2007, The American Lawyer selected Mr. Prettyman as one of their Lifetime Achievers and featured him in their September 2007 issue. This award honors distinctive careers and public service. It “recognizes senior lawyers who have made outsize contributions to public life while building outstanding practices... have exemplified the legal profession’s twin values of client service and public duty” and whose “work stands as both an inspiration and a challenge to those who follow them.”

He was named “One of the 90 Greatest Washington Lawyers of the Last 30 Years” in 2008 by Legal Times. Until his death, Mr. Prettyman was “of counsel” to Hogan Lovells in Washington, DC.

Relatives and friends may call at Joseph Gawler's Sons, LLC, 5130 Wisconsin Ave NW (corner of Harrison Street) Washington, DC (Valet Parking) on Tuesday, November 8, 2016 from 2:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. A funeral service will be held at Chevy Chase United Methodist Church, 7001 Connecticut Ave., Chevy Chase, MD on Wednesday, November 9, 2016 at 2:00 p.m. Interment will follow at Rockville Cemetery, Baltimore Road, Rockville, MD.

In lieu of flowers donations may be made in Mr. Prettyman's name to The Animal Welfare Institute, 900 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20003 http://awionline.org/ or to St. Jude Children's Hospital.

Arrangements under the direction of Joseph Gawler's Sons LLC, Washington, DC.