For Irvin Nathan, public service was not an abstract ideal. His wife, Judy Walter, said he used to describe government work as the time when he was “wearing a white hat” — a chance to put his legal skills to work for the public.

That instinct helped define a career that took Nathan from Arnold & Porter to the U.S. Justice Department, the U.S. House of Representatives and the District of Columbia attorney general’s office, and later to Tzedek DC, the Jewish community-organized legal services group he helped launch as founding board chair.

Nathan died Sept. 5 at home after three years of declining health. He was 83.

Walter said the values that shaped his public life could be traced back to childhood.

Born Aug. 4, 1943, Nathan grew up in Baltimore’s Jewish community, the son of Sol and Irene Nathan, civil servants of modest means and children of Eastern European immigrants.

Nathan attended Isaac Davidson Hebrew School and later took Jewish studies classes through the high school division of Baltimore Hebrew College while attending Baltimore City College.

After graduating from Baltimore City College, a public high school, Nathan attended Johns Hopkins University on scholarship, where he studied history and became editor-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins News-Letter. He went on to Columbia Law School and clerked for Judge Simon E. Sobeloff of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which helped shape his approach to public service.

Nathan joined Arnold & Porter in 1968. Walter said he was attracted by the firm’s tradition of lawyers moving between private practice and government.

At the Justice Department, Nathan helped supervise the ABSCAM public-corruption prosecutions. Walter recalled that he was stunned and deeply disappointed when he saw the first films showing cash changing hands.

As House general counsel, Nathan helped lead litigation seeking enforcement of congressional subpoenas against former White House counsel Harriet Miers. Walter said Nathan believed the House had the law on its side and that enforcing the subpoena was important to congressional authority.

“It was a very important principle as a matter of law and as a matter of institutional integrity,” she said.

Nathan served as D.C. attorney general from 2011 through 2014. He ran an office of about 700 employees, including roughly 350 lawyers. Walter said it may have been the job he loved most because it allowed him to use his experience and relationships on behalf of the city where he had spent his adult life.

“It was such an opportunity to do good for the district,” she said.

That commitment continued through Tzedek DC, which helps District residents confronting debt and consumer-related legal problems. Nathan became its founding board chair as the organization was being developed in 2015 and 2016.

Ariel Levinson-Waldman, Tzedek DC’s founding director, had worked for Nathan at the House and the D.C. attorney general’s office.

Nathan played “an absolutely central role” in establishing Tzedek DC, Levinson-Waldman said. He chaired board meetings, reviewed filings and recruited lawyers and supporters.

Levinson-Waldman said Nathan’s involvement grew from his commitment to tikkun olam — repairing the world — and access to justice.

Nathan was particularly drawn to the Torah teaching, “Justice, justice shall you pursue.”

For Nathan, Levinson-Waldman said, Jewish responsibility extended beyond the Jewish community to the broader community.
Levinson-Waldman recalled Nathan encouraging pro bono work while attorney general and contacting law firms to find representation for people he believed needed a lawyer as a matter of fairness.

Nathan was also a demanding mentor.

“He had an extremely high standard for himself and for everyone that he worked with,” Levinson-Waldman said.

Walter described him as a gifted writer, fast thinker and fierce litigator. Mentoring younger lawyers seemed almost instinctive, she said.

“He was always really proud when younger people he had worked with went on to bigger and better things,” she said.

Although Nathan was not traditionally observant later in life, Walter said being Jewish was “critical to his identity.” He belonged to Beth Chai, a humanistic Jewish congregation based in Bethesda. When he and Walter traveled, they often sought out Jewish museums or attended Friday night services.

His Jewish communal involvement also included volunteer service with the Anti-Defamation League of D.C. and the American Jewish Congress, National Capital Region.

Israel was particularly important to him. The couple first visited in 1978 and he returned several times. In 2015, they spent two months living in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and Nathan addressed legal staff at the Knesset.

He and Walter established the Sol and Irene Nathan Baltimore Scholarship at Johns Hopkins. Walter said it reflected Nathan’s belief in education and his desire to help Baltimore students from modest backgrounds gain opportunities like those that had shaped his own life.

Nathan had two sons, Daniel and Jonathan, from an earlier marriage. Walter described him as a caring father who loved them “deeply and fiercely” and held them to the same high standards he set for himself.

That intensity and engagement remained with him even after a stroke in 2023 affected his speech, balance and ability to read.

He also had thyroid cancer. Walter said he nevertheless stayed deeply interested in current events and the legal world.

“There was joy in every day,” she said. “He was extraordinary to the end.”

Levinson-Waldman said Nathan’s work in law, government and public service was united by a desire to strengthen the institutions and communities he served.

It all came under one heading, he said: “Positive impact for our community and our country.”

Ellen Braunstein is a freelance obituary writer. She welcomes suggestions for individuals who had meaningful ties to the greater Washington Jewish community. Email csix@midatlanticmedia.com.