Erik Silber

About Erik Silber

Erik began his career clerking for two federal circuit judges and working at two law firms (Proskauer and Howard Rice). He joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2002, initially to handle appeals, and has argued 36 appeals before the Ninth Circuit, including an en-banc argument. From 2006-13, Erik split between the Criminal Appeals and Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Sections and spent a year on loan to the White House (2010-11) as a director/senior advisor to the U.S. IP Enforcement Coordinator. Erik then trained and supervised new AUSAs for more than three years (2013-16 and 2019) as a Deputy Chief in the General Crimes Section, working with new AUSAs to develop their trial and appellate skills. In 2016, Erik joined the Environmental and Community Safety Crimes Section and, from 2017 to 2020, Erik also served as co-District Elections Officer, drawing on his expertise reinstating charges involving illegal campaign contributions to a presidential candidate, United States v. O’Donnell, 608 F.3d 546 (9th Cir. In total, Erik has tried 7 cases (6 criminal and 1 civil), mentored 2 federal trials as third chair, and directly supervised 43 federal trials. From January 2022 to September 2023, Erik spent 21 months on loan as a senior counsel in DOJ\'s Office of Legal Policy focusing, in part, on cyber, IP, emerging technology, and privacy issues.From 2023-24, Erik was Chair of the Litigation Section of the California Lawyers Association (\"CLA\"), leading a team of 40 executive committee members and advisors and managing a budget to provide benefits to the Section\'s almost members statewide. Erik also is an Executive Committee Member and Pupillage Group Leader for the Los Angeles Criminal Justice Inn of Court. Erik previously served as Chair of the CLA-Wide Committee on Civic Engagement and Outreach, Chair of the State Bar Committee on Federal Courts, and Chair of the Litigation Section\'s Committee on Access to Justice and Civic Engagement. For three years, Erik also served as Co-Editor in Chief of an approximately 100-page annual Litigation Section publication.Erik has been a criminal-procedure professor at USC School of Law, a recurring guest lecturer on white-collar crime and appellate advocacy at Loyola Law School, and on the faculty at DOJ\'s National Advocacy Center. Erik was a mock-trial judge during new AUSA training and helps with mock-trial and/or moot-court programs at U.C. Berkeley, USC, UCLA, and Loyola law schools and through the Constitutional Rights Foundation. CRF named Erik Attorney of the Year in 2017.

Experience

1. Senior Counsel

   Dykema

   Jan 2026 — Present · Los Angeles, CA, US

   I’m excited to join Dykema, where I will focus on high-stakes civil litigation and white collar investigations and defense, including critical motions and appeals, cybersecurity/data privacy, intellectual property, and election law. Currently preparing to serve as embedded appellate counsel for trials in February and March.

Education

• University of California, Berkeley - School of Law

  J.D.

  1994 — 1997

• University of California, Davis

  A.B., Economics and Political Science

  1989 — 1993