Hayden Howlett, Esq.

As the Principal Attorney at Silverpine Law, Mr. Howlett oversees the law firm’s operations and represents clients in business-related matters in state and federal courts across the country. His cases primarily concern copyright infringement, trade-secret misappropriation, commercial lease disputes, business fraud, and business contract breaches. 

Before creating Silverpine Law, Mr. Howlett worked in business-litigation groups at McGuireWoods LLP and three high-end litigation boutique law firms in downtown DC. At those firms, most of the cases concerned large and midsize companies battling over very large sums of money. This spanned a range of sophisticated commercial litigation, including: executive noncompete enforcement, trade secrets among military contractors, commercial leasing disputes among celebrity chefs, international civil asset forfeiture, corporate whistleblowers on large-scale energy projects, commercial real estate disputes, investment partnership fights, legal malpractice, non-medical professional malpractice, fiduciary duty breaches, and a wide variety of contract battles between rival business entities. 

Mr. Howlett earned his law degree on scholarship at George Washington University in DC. Under the USNWR ranking system, the school then ranked in the top 10% of national law schools overall, the top 15% for its trial advocacy program, the top 10% for business law, and the top 2% for intellectual property law. Mr. Howlett’s studies were focused in these nationally-top-ranked areas. While in law school, he won numerous awards at competitions simulating courtroom trials, appellate oral arguments, commercial arbitrations, and commercial negotiations, earning the distinction “Best Oral Advocate.” He was also selected to serve as Associate Editor for the quarterly journal published by the American Intellectual Property Law Association. His research paper concerned misappropriation of trade secrets in international business.

While in law school, Mr. Howlett was selected to spend nine months working directly with The Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the United States District Court in DC. Having since moved to “Senior” status, Judge Kollar-Kotelly remains one of the longest-serving and best-respected judges on the federal bench. Working with this elite federal judge gave Mr. Howlett valuable insight regarding how business cases are decided in the real world. The practical realities of the court system differ in important ways from the theoretical models taught in even the best law schools. Litigation attorneys without a judicial experience like this lack an insider’s knowledge of the court system that is extremely useful when guiding clients through the litigation process.

Before law school, Mr. Howlett earned an undergraduate degree in quantitative economics and business, with honors, on full-ride merit scholarship. He has served as a debate coach and public-speaking coach at multiple high schools, and as a courtroom trial coach at George Washington University Law School. 

Mr. Howlett is a licensed member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Virginia State Bar. He is admitted to practice in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and in the US District Courts for the District of Columbia, the Eastern District of Virginia, and the Western District of Virginia. He handles state and federal cases in other locations through association with local counsel, most commonly in the federal trial courts in Pennsylvania, California, Florida, Texas, and Delaware.