Karl Racine
| Karl Racine | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Attorney General for the District of Columbia | |
|
Assumed office January 2, 2015 |
|
| Mayor | Muriel Bowser |
| Preceded by | Irvin Nathan |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1963 (age 53–54) Haiti |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education |
University of Pennsylvania (BA) University of Virginia (JD) |
Karl A. Racine (born 1963) is an American white-collar defense lawyer and public servant, who has served as the first elected Attorney General for the District of Columbia since January 2015. Prior to his election, he was the managing partner of Venable LLP.
Born in Haiti, Racine and his family fled the Duvalier regime and emigrated to Washington, D.C. when he was three years old. He attended public schools until eighth grade and graduated from St. John's College High School, and was star high school basketball player.
Racine attended the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia School of Law, where he worked at a pro bono clinic representing migrant farm workers. He said he was drawn to the law because of the role lawyers played in advancing civil rights. While in law school, he and his mother produced the first Haitian Creole/English legal dictionary, intended to aid Haitian immigrants to the United States.
After graduating from law school in 1989, Racine joined Venable LLP but left in 1992 to become a staff attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. He then returned to private practice at Cacheris & Treanor, where he handled large white-collar and civil cases, and later served as associate White House counsel in the Clinton administration. In addition, he served as a member of the D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission, a selection panel for judges. Racine returned to Venable in 2000 and was elected managing partner in 2006, becoming the first black managing partner of a top-100 law firm.
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