Abe Krash, who as a junior partner at the law firm of Arnold, Fortas & Porter played a critical role in Gideon v. Wainwright, the 1963 case in which the Supreme Court unanimously declared a right to counsel in criminal cases, died on July 6 at his home in Chevy Chase, MD. He was 97.

The Gideon decision is widely considered one of the most significant of the 20th century, part of a string of cases in which the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren shored up Americans’ civil liberties in the face of the criminal justice system.

The case centered on a Florida man, Clarence Earl Gideon, arrested in 1961 for petit larceny, found guilty, denied a request for counsel, and sentenced to five years in prison. The Supreme Court found in Mr. Gideon’s favor in 1963. He was later retried and acquitted.

Mr. Krash became a partner in the law firm in 1960 and retired in 1998, having seen the firm grow from a dozen lawyers to more than 1,000. He handled some of the firm’s major clients, and was a mentor to generations of young lawyers, including Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who said, “He never failed to emphasize to every new lawyer that Clarence Earl Gideon was the firm’s most important client.”