Karl Racine, candidate for the position of Attorney General for the District of Columbia, during a debate organized by the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia, at the offices O’Melveny & Myers. October 21, 2014. Photo by Diego M. Radzinschi/THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL.
Karl Racine was sworn in as Washington, D.C.’s first elected attorney general in 2015 and was reelected in 2018. For Racine, the job is the latest in a series of high-profile leadership roles that date back to his time as a student at the University of Pennsylvania. (As captain, he led the basketball team to two championships in the 1980s.) Racine went on to the University of Virginia School of Law and was named the managing partner at Venable in 2006, becoming the first black lawyer to hold the firmwide role at an Am Law 100 firm.
Under Racine, the D.C. Office of Attorney General has prioritized action in areas like consumer protection and juvenile justice system reform. The office also hasn’t backed down from high-stakes litigation, even when the opponent is the president of the United States. Racine recently spoke with National Law Journal Editor-in-Chief Lisa Helem about his work as D.C. attorney general and his leadership path at Venable.
