Alexander Silvert, author of The Mailbox Conspiracy,” was raised in New York City and Vermont. After graduating from UCLA and driving a cab in New York, he obtained his JD from Boston College Law School.  He was a state and federal public defender in Philadelphia before moving in 1989 to work at the Hawai‘i Federal Public Defenders Office, serving as the First Assistant FPD f 1992-2020. In 2000, he was one of several AFPDs named “Federal Defender of the Year” by the National Association of Federal Defenders. He teaches at the Richardson School of law, and is a federal criminal law consultant.