Meet Karl Racine

Karl Racine became the first elected Attorney General for the District of Columbia in 2015 and was reelected in 2018. Mr. Racine’s priorities include preserving affordable housing, employing evidence-based juvenile justice reforms, cracking down on slumlords, holding unscrupulous employers accountable for wage theft, and protecting consumers from scams and abusive business practices. He is also committed to making investments in new efforts to protect seniors and other vulnerable residents, interrupt violence in the District, address childhood trauma, and more. 

Through his work as president of the bipartisan National Association of Attorneys General and as Chair Emeritus of the Democratic Attorneys General Association’s Executive Committee, Attorney General Racine also speaks out for D.C. autonomy at the national level and pushes back against federal government policies that harm District residents.

Attorney General Racine draws on over 25 years of legal and leadership experience in his work on behalf of District residents. Mr. Racine has worked in both the public and private sector, including becoming the first African American to be named Managing Partner of a top 100 law firm. 

Mr. Racine was born in Haiti but excelled in his education in D.C. public schools before eventually graduating from St. John’s College High School. An All-Metropolitan basketball player there and then team captain at the University of Pennsylvania, Mr. Racine next earned his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. His commitment to equal justice was inspired by his parents, who fled authoritarian rule in Haiti to start a better life in the United States, and by the lawyers of the Civil Rights Movement, who used the law to make positive social change.

Outside of his official role, Attorney General Racine remains involved with a variety of causes, including youth literacy and mentoring.

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