D.C. Bar Mourns Passing of Former President Daniel Rezneck
February 25, 2021
Daniel Rezneck, former senior assistant attorney general for the District Columbia and fourth president of the D.C. Bar, passed away on February 23 at age 85.
Rezneck was a partner at Arnold & Porter for 27 years and taught at Georgetown University Law Center for 56 years. From 1995 to 2001, he served as general counsel to the District of Columbia Financial Control Board, which took the city out of bankruptcy.
“Dan was a legend of the D.C. Bar,” says Robert Spagnoletti, D.C. Bar CEO. “He had a storied career, inspired young lawyers in the private and public sectors, and was dedicated to the Bar, serving as one of its early presidents. Dan was not only a brilliant lawyer, but a true public servant working at the D.C. Office of the Attorney General long after his contemporaries settled into retirement.”
Rezneck’s legal career in the District spanned more than half a century. After earning his juris doctor from Harvard Law School in 1959, he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan from 1960 to 1961. Rezneck then became an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, describing it in a 2007 interview with Washington Lawyer as his “best job.”
“I was in the misdemeanor branch, where all the young assistants started,” Rezneck said. “They had a counter there where citizens could make complaints and ask the assistant U.S. attorneys to authorize warrants for the arrest of people. We didn’t actually issue the warrants, but we would recommend them, and the judges would issue them based on our recommendations. It was a fascinating experience because it brought me into direct contact with people in the community.”
After his three-year stint with the city’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, Rezneck joined Arnold & Porter in 1964 where he focused on general litigation. During his tenure at the firm, Rezneck worked on several high-profile cases, including writing a brief in the 1967 In re Gault case, which led to a seminal U.S. Supreme Court decision that juveniles accused of crimes must be afforded many of the same due process rights as adults.
Before the U.S. Supreme Court, Rezneck argued 1972’s Shadwick v. City of Tampa on whether a municipal court clerk could issue a valid arrest warrant. In 1983 he argued on behalf of the petitioners in District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman, which in part became the basis for the Rooker-Feldman Doctrine prohibiting lower federal courts from reviewing state court civil judgments.
At Arnold & Porter, Rezneck also led the firm’s pro bono program, supervising several employment discrimination matters.
From 1975 to 1976, Rezneck served as D.C. Bar president. Under his leadership, he established the Bar’s Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Program. “We had hoped to use Bar dues to support it, but the membership of the Bar voted in a referendum against using Bar dues for more than a few limited purposes. So, we had to do this through the Sections [now Communities] and by making the CLE programs as self-supporting as we could,” Rezneck recalled in a 2007 interview. “I look back on that with satisfaction because CLE is fundamental; and we now have one of the best programs in the country.”
After leaving Arnold & Porter, Rezneck went on to serve as general counsel to the District’s Financial Control Board. “It was a new experience for me because, as general counsel, I wasn’t just doing law,” he said. “The Control Board was acting though the five members of the board, plus the executive director, and myself as general counsel. I had the chance to be in on making policy as well as advising on strictly legal matters. I found that extremely interesting because I hadn’t had much chance to do that in private practice.”
Rezneck returned to the D.C. Attorney General’s Office, serving in the civil litigation division and commercial division. He became senior assistant attorney general in 2001.
His lengthy career as an educator began in 1963 at Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught until 2019. Rezneck received Georgetown’s Charles Fahy Distinguished Adjunct Professor Award in 1994.
Among other noteworthy appointments, Rezneck was a member of the District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure, a member of the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, a trustee of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, and a trustee of the DC Bar Foundation.
Rezneck is survived by his wife, Beverly, two children, and four grandchildren.
