Earl J. Silbert, who led the federal prosecution of the botched Watergate burglary, which secured the convictions of all five burglars and two of the break-in’s planners, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy, died on Sept. 6 in Keene, NH. He was 86.

The break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington on June 17, 1972, set off a chain of events that led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon two years later.

Mr. Silbert later became a respected white collar defense lawyer, notably described as a “lawyer’s lawyer.” He was the go-to person when a lawyer got into trouble. His clients included former Attorney General Griffin Bell, when he was accused of defaming an E.F. Hutton branch manager in an investigative report on a checking scandal; former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles during the independent counsel Ken Starr’s investigation of President Bill Clinton; and Kenneth Lay, the former chairman and chief executive of the bankrupt energy firm Enron.