- Good evening.
Welcome, it's great to
see all of you here.
Welcome to one of the
first big events of the Spring semester,
and really one of my favorite
annual events here at the law school.
This is the 21st Annual
Attorney General Robert Abrams
Public Service Lecture,
and I'm Trevor Morrison
I'm the Dean of the law school.
This Abrams Lecture
really is a hallmark event
at the law school every year.
It's something we look forward to hosting.
It's part of an effort by the law school
to foster commitment to public service
by featuring leading public servants
who are forging important careers
in the interest of serving the public
and who themselves can provide role models
for our students contemplating careers
of their own in public service.
(door creaking)
And without putting too fine a point on it
let me just say now more
than ever we need role models
of that sort in public service.
And so we are thrilled
tonight in particular
to our friend and graduate
from the NYU Law Class of 1963
the Honorable Robert Abrams
for making this possible.
Bob, thank you very much indeed.
I also wanna thank, personally,
the District of Columbia
Attorney General Karl Racine
today's speaker for joining us.
Bob will introduce General
Racine in a moment,
but first let me just say a few words
about public interest in public service
here at the law school,
and about Bob Abrams.
I think it is beyond question that NYU Law
offers a more comprehensive, and has made
a more comprehensive
commitment to public service
than really any other law
school in the country.
And it's something
tremendously important to me.
Its one of the reasons that I was trilled
to be offered the opportunity
to come and work here
at the law school coming
up on five years ago.
And it's an ongoing institutional,
and for many of us
personal, commitment here.
And the leaders of that effort
are the folks in the
Public Interest Law Center
and Lisa Hoyes and Gail Zweig are here.
There's Lisa, and where's Gail?
There she is.
Thanks to both of you
(all applauding)
for what you do for public
interest in the law school.
The students in the room know
that PILC really comprehensive support
for those planning
careers in public interest
and public service, whether
that means in government service
or in the non-governmental space
through summer grants for students,
through career advice to students
thinking about work in this space,
through providing access
to our many many alums
in public interest and public service
to help plot their careers,
and through organizing events like this
where we can bring
leaders in public service
to the law school to share their
wisdom and their expertise.
Speaking of wisdom and expertise,
our graduate the Honorable Robert Abrams
is a shining example of those things
and of true dedication to public service.
A few words about him:
Bob has had a storied
career in public service.
Including being a member of
the New York State Assembly
and serving three terms as
Bronx Borough President,
and then in 1978 elected
to serve the first
of four terms as New
York's Attorney General.
A position he ultimately
held for 15 years.
Bob is by consensus
really a model of State Attorney General.
And I can't tell you how
many State Attorneys General
I've met over the last several years
who without my prompting,
without often their even knowing
that I'm the Dean of the law school
from which Bob graduated,
they will point to Bob Abrams as a model
of what they hope to do in their time
as Attorney General of their state.
And all of that reputation is well earned.
Bob established himself
as a leader on key issues
like consumer protection,
environment, finance,
the integrity of
not-for-profit organizations,
civil rights, and real estate.
And perhaps more important
than the substantive
achievements in all of those
he really provided a model of
integrity in public service
of how to undertake hard work
and to deal with difficult,
often pointed conflicts,
in a way that just exuded
integrity, good faith,
and a willingness to work
through difficult issues
crossing otherwise unbridgeable divides
with other colleagues and
government, and outside.
And, again I think
there's never been a time
more than today when we
need those sorts of models.
And so we are tremendously
proud of our graduate Bob Abrams
And tremendously thankful
for his ongoing support
of this lecture series.
And without further ado
let me ask you to join me
in welcoming Bob Abrams.
(all applauding)
- Thank you so much Dean.
I'm very grateful for
those very very warm,
exceedingly warm and generous remarks.
I want to thank the Dean and Lisa Hoyes,
and Lisa Borge for all their work to help
to bring us together again on
this special occasion tonight.
Over 20 years ago
I was talking to a
former Dean, John Sexton,
and I said, "John, I
spent 28 years of my life
"in public office and they
were the most exciting
"and best years ever."
Two years out of graduating
out of this law school
I, by chance and serendipity,
I ran for public office,
and then almost three decades went by
working in public service.
"But I'm concerned", I said,
"John, because when I
pick up the newspapers
"I invariably see negative stories
"about those in public office
who betray the public trust."
And those are the isolated
few and not the normal many
who I met in the course of public service
who I felt were outstanding people,
they were capable, they were honest,
they were hardworking.
"And I'm concerned that students,
"who we desperately need,
young people with energy,
"enthusiasm, integrity,
ability, knowledge,
"drive, determination, we
need them to help purify
"the ills and the evils that
perpetuate in our society.
"We need them not the drop out,
"but to roll up their
sleeves and get involved.
"And they can't be discouraged.
"They have to have a
potential burning ambition
"to say 'I want to run for public office',
"'I want to serve as the Chief of Staff
"'of an elected official',
'I wanna do something
"to help remediate the evils,
and the ills in the world
"and repair the world'.
"And we've gotta to something
"to try to encourage them to do that".
So we came up with this idea
that if students here at
the law school once a year
came in contact with one of
these exemplary public officials
perhaps they'd walk away from the lecture
and say, "oh that Heidi Heitkamp,
"United States Senator from North Dakota,
"what a genuine woman she was,
"and I just was bowled over,
"and I never expected to hear
"the kind of sincerity
that came from her."
Or Jim Doyle the former
Attorney General of Wisconsin
who became the Governor, or Joe Lieberman
who launched this series
over 21 years ago.
The dozens of people who have come
as former judges, attorneys
general, governors,
United States senators to try
to come to this law school
and imbue some confidence and
encouragement to law students.
And thankfully that that has happened
over these two decades.
And tonight we have
another incredible example
of the kind of person I'm talking about.
Somebody who I got to know a few years ago
and have grown to admire
based upon what he has done,
who he is, and what he's all about.
The Attorney General of
the District of Columbia
Karl Racine.
His parents came to this
country as immigrants
from some place called Haiti.
It's been in the news lately.
And as three-and-a-half year old,
Karl came to the United States
and he and his family settled in
in the District of Columbia area.
He grew up there, went
to the local schools,
wound up going to the
University of Pennsylvania.
He was the captain of the
basketball team, a starter,
a double-digit average in the
last couple of years, all ivy,
and then he went to the
University of Virginia Law Shool.
Great law school.
Learned the law, and also was able to
do something that was important to him.
There was a clinic dealing
with farm worker issues
and problems and he was
passionate about that.
He wanted to make sure there
were no injustices done
to migrant farm workers.
And he participated in that
and after graduation from law school
over a couple of decades he practiced law.
And he did two things.
He practiced in the public sector,
he was a public defender,
he was an Associate
Counsel in the White House
during the tenue of
President Bill Clinton,
and he worked in the private sector.
One of the law firms he
joined right out of college
was the Venable law firm.
And he rose from a first year
associate to the very top.
He was selected to be the
Managing Partner of Venable,
the first African-American in
the history of this country
to be the Managing Partner
of an AmLaw 100 law firm.
And then came the opportunity
for him to seek elective office.
And it was a unique moment in the history
of the District of Columbia.
The office there was called,
the Chief Legal Officer
was called the Corporation Counsel,
as is the case in the city of New York
and other municipalities,
but the law was changed
to rename the office the Attorney General
of the District of Columbia.
And no longer was that
person gonna be appointed
by the mayor, that person was
gonna be selected, elected
by the people of the District of Columbia.
And Karl Racine ran
and won the opportunity
to be the first duly
elected District Attorney
of the District of Columbia,
and as such he has done a fantastic job.
His leadership qualities
were immediately seen
on the national horizon
as he became a member
of the National Association
of Attorneys General,
became an officer
of the Democratic Attorney
Generals Association,
as he shaped that office
to help the people
of the District of Columbia
in dealing with consumer protection,
and juvenile justice, and housing issues,
affordability of housing issues.
And so it is a source of great pride
and privilege for me to introduce
the son of immigrants,
an immigrant himself,
who did the classic American thing,
make this country a better place
and being the kind of
person we all admire.
It's my privilege and
pleasure to introduce
the Attorney General of
the District of Columbia
Karl Racine
(all applauding)
- So I've got a binder right at the
seat of, right on the floor there,
those were my prepared remarks.
I'm gonna jettison those prepared remarks
and just go with a little
index card to guide me.
And let me first say
thank you so very much
to NYU, and Dean Morrison, the staff,
Lisa, Lisa, and Gail
for your warm embrace.
Also wanna thank everyone
associated with NYU
for granting my motion for a continuance.
I was invited to speak in September,
third week of September,
(door creaking)
and sure enough I guess the
weekend before I was to speak
my mother suffered a
pretty significant stroke
and I needed to attend to her.
And I'm so happy that, but not surprised,
that I was certainly filled with love
when I shared my personal crisis,
but I was given the
opportunity to still come
and meet the fabulous students at NYU Law.
So I come to you as a friend,
as someone who loves the law,
and respects the mighty NYU Law School.
Let me say a word about Bob Abrams first.
You should know that the
Office of Attorney General
is run by Democrats and
Republicans throughout the country.
Collegiality is incredibly important
to the wellbeing
of the National Association
of Attorney General.
While we are sometimes
hopelessly partisan,
Democrats on certain issues,
Republicans on certain issues,
it's incredibly important
(door creaking)
that overwhelmingly the
nations Attorney Generals
are willing to work together
on extraordinarily important issues,
be it tobacco, or today the opioid crisis.
And it's really because
of people like Bob,
who certainly is a passionate Democrat,
but he leaves his
political party at the door
when it comes to having an opportunity
to not only get to know, and hear,
and understand a different
perspective or view point,
but even more have an
opportunity to work together
on a problem that we all confront.
And so in a real way I've
modeled myself after Bob Abrams
and the way he treats his colleagues
and everybody he encounters
because it's really that way,
notwithstanding disagreement
and disagreement as necessary,
that we're able to come together
at times to tackle issues that
only two parties can tackle.
And so it's an honor for me to be here.
I must add that I just
learned that Bob's wife Diane
is a Columbia Law grad,
and according to Diane
Bob didn't get into Columbia.
(all laughing)
But,
but we're all here at NYU now,
and we're proud and lovely.
I wanna say that one of the
greatest experiences I've had
as being AG of the District of Columbia
are the experiences you have to travel
with fellow attorney
general to different places
throughout the country and
indeed internationally.
And no trip that I've
ever taken in my life
has been more impactful
to me
than the trip that I took
with Bob and about six or
seven other AGs to Israel
with the American Israeli
Friends of Israel.
That trip opened my mind
on a geopolitical level.
And I can't tell you how much I've learned
about the Middle East
rivalry, relevance, religion, property,
but also how we must always engage
in the work for peace.
So if I were to leave my job
today as Attorney General
and somebody were to ask
me what the highlights
of the job were I would have to include
amongst the top five
the journey that we took
with your family, and
Diane was certainly there.
And having a Shabbat
dinner with your family
in Jerusalem was truly extraordinary.
So it is an honor to be here.
Now, look I'm gonna be
the first to tell ya
that I get a little
nervous from time to time
when I'm speaking in
front of talented people.
Especially when prior Bob Abrams lectures
are on YouTube on the internet.
So I've seen so many
of my former colleagues
and friends appear here
and give riveting talks.
And I think their talks
have been different,
each one of course, but
they've all tried to share
personal experiences with
the students in particular
and try to imbue the students
with the sense of idealism
about what can be
accomplished when folks decide
to run for office or otherwise serve
in the public service.
And so I hope my remarks
will continue that tradition.
I will try to sprinkle a tip,
maybe some guidance or something
of that sort along the way.
Some things that I've
learned and benefited from.
So let me start off by
saying as Bob indicated,
I am the child of Marie and Etzer Racine
who are Haitians, proud Haitians.
And I've always known
that I'm an immigrant,
but I've also always known that eventually
my father's dream would be realized,
and that is that his two kids
would become naturalized
citizens of the United States
and would become full
participants in the democracy
that is the United States.
And my father passed a
couple of decades ago.
I should tell you that he
was the mayor of his town,
a town called Croix-des-Bouquets,
which is now famous because
it has another son, Wyclef.
(audience chuckling softly)
But my dad always wanted me and my sister
to consider elective office
and it's one regret that I have
that I didn't run while he was living.
Being in immigrant obviously has shaped
a lot of my viewpoints
on life, and opportunity,
and law.
And of course Bob mentioned
that Haiti was in the news recently
as a result of reported comments
that the President of
the United States made
about our beloved home
country and other countries.
I was very fortunate
to be asked to comment
on the Presidents remarks
and,
you know, and I shared my views.
And I don't think that we should use words
like racist or racism lightly,
but I must tell you that I felt as though
the President's reported
remarks, you know,
were certainly of a racist
mindset
at worst
and at best just the mindset
of somebody who is gravely ignorant.
And so I invited the President,
or his people at that point,
to meet with Haitian-Americans
and get to know Haitian-Americans
and get to know the unique history
that Haiti and America they shared
over the last couple
hundred and 25 years or so.
I'm still waiting for the White House
to take us up on our invitation,
but I'm sure there'll be
an occasion at some point
for greater sharing of the history
of Haitians and the history of Americans.
What I wanna tell you is that
Haiti sent Haitian soldiers
to fight side by side with
the colonists who sought to
be free from Great Britain.
And so the history of Haiti and America
is an rich history and worthy
of further exploration,
perhaps by even you.
Let me talk a little bit
about why I went to law school
and some of the,
important lessons that I've learned
that have brought me to this place.
I attended law school because
frankly I was enthralled
with the civil rights
history of our great country.
Does anybody know or heard of a man
named Charles Hamilton Houston?
There you go.
Charles Hamilton Houston
was a Washingtonian,
an extraordinary human being.
His father was a lawyer in fact
and his mother was a seamstress.
They grew up in lower to
middle class Washington D.C.
Charles Hamilton Houston
was a brilliant student,
number one in his high school class,
got a scholarship to Amherst
College, valedictorian
at Amherst,
volunteered to join the
forces in World War I
and served an as artillery man in France.
What he experienced in France
caused him to be focused on law.
What he experienced was discrimination,
discrimination against
African-American soldiers
who were fighting side by side
with other Americans.
And Charles Hamilton Houston determined
that there is no way
that when he comes back
he's going to stand for discrimination
in a country that he fought for.
And so when Charles
Hamilton Houston returned
from World War I, what did he do?
He applied for law school,
got into Harvard Law School,
became the first
African-American who was elected
to the Harvard Law Review Board.
Then he returned home after
graduating from law school.
And after getting home he was hired to be
the Dean of the Howard
University Law School
and he determined that he would turn
Howard University Law School into
an armed forces of sort, legal sort,
that would help
dismantle Jim Crow in the south
and bring about equality
throughout the United States.
And that's exactly what he did.
He tutored and raised
up a slew of lawyers,
including Thurgood
Marshall and plenty others.
And unfortunately Charles
Hamilton Houston died
fairly early in life or else we would be
hearing about him more
in the history books.
But Charles Hamilton Houston talked
about lawyers in the
law at that time period.
And Charles Hamilton Houston was clear.
He said that,
"A lawyer is either a social engineer
"who would seek to use the law,
"the great tools of the law
to help vulnerable people
"or would seek to use the law
"to enrich him or herself".
In that case Charles Hamilton
Houston gave the students
at Howard University two choices,
you can be a social
engineer or a parasite.
(audience chuckling softly)
I think he was a little harsh
(chuckles) on the second side,
but we get where he was coming from
on the whole idea of using
the law, right, as a tool
to elevate
the life and prospects of other people.
Charles Hamilton Houston's life story
has always stayed with me
and resonated with be deeply,
and indeed it's the reason
why I went to law school.
To use the law, quite
simply, to help people.
And Bob mentioned
at the University of
Virginia School of Law
I was part of a migrant
farm workers clinic
in Charlottesville Virginia,
which is beautiful.
There are apple orchards,
and peach orchards,
and things like that around.
And they often had migrant
farm workers come in
to, you know, really pick
the fruit at peak harvest.
What we found at UVA Law
was that unfortunately
some of the farms, you know,
were not abiding by law.
What does that mean?
It means they weren't paying folks
the bare minimum of what the law required.
It meant that they were not
providing housing in the
way that the law required.
And it meant that they
were not providing access,
at this point telephone access,
to their workers so that the workers
could keep in touch with their families.
So the migrant farm workers went out
and interviewed the farmers
and prepared a legal complaint.
And then lo and behold every single farm
started comporting themselves with law.
And so it was a wonderful education
of a first year law student
that even though we were not yet barred
we could have an incredible impact
on the lives of vulnerable people.
I think that's exactly why I
decided to work at a law firm,
the Venable law firm, after law school
that had a rich tradition
of pro bono work.
The firm was led by a
former attorney general
of the United States, a
guy named Ben Civiletti.
Mr. Civiletti was a man of great intellect
and also tremendous goodwill.
I had the fortune of
working with Ben Civiletti
and one of the first cases he put me on
was a pro bono matter for a gentleman
who was facing execution in
the Commonwealth of Virginia.
I didn't ask for the case,
the case literally was assigned to me.
For four years I represented the gentleman
named Timothy Bunch.
And Timothy acknowledged
killing another individual.
What we were seeking in Timothy's
case was the suppression
of a statement
that he had given to law enforcement
incriminating himself.
As it turned out we thought
we were right on the law,
but we lost in the federal habeas
at the District Court level,
and then at the Fourth Circuit
on a two to one basis.
And then we sought a
rehearing en banc petition
and we lost just by one vote.
And the way it went down
was all the Democrats
on the Fourth Circuit voted
in favor of suppression,
all of the Republicans if you will,
the conservatives, voted against it.
And so my client was eventually executed.
That was an extraordinary
experience in law.
I remember having
conversations with Tim Bunch
about my legal career.
And I remember Tim arguing vociferously
that I should become a prosecuter.
And I asked him, "Why would you want me
"to become a prosecuter?
"Don't you know, Tim, that
the way it is out here
"in the world is that indigent defendants
"don't really have the
benefit in most jurisdictions
"of able counsel?
"That's where I need to play".
Tim Bunch told me that I had it wrong.
That even though there was a crisis,
and certainly there
needed to be improvements
for indigent defendants,
prosecution was where it was at
because that's where I could
have an impact on scale
not just an individual case.
I listened to Tim, and disagreed with Tim,
and eventually became a public defender
in the District of Columbia.
Of course that experience also
I was able to see exactly
how poor people oftentimes were
treated in the legal system.
We were fortunate at the
public defender service
in the District of Columbia
to have exceptional lawyers
and adequate resources.
And so I learned a lot
about fairness, equity,
and again the plight of poor people.
Eventually when I would
decide to run for office
and become a prosecuter
I realized the wisdom
of Tim's counseling
because one of my priorities
as Attorney General
was to really examine the
juvenile justice system
in the District of Columbia,
offer suggested changes,
and to make impact.
So here's what we did in
the District of Columbia
on juvenile justice.
We first studied exactly what the role
of the Office of Attorney General was,
and that wasn't too hard to come up with.
Our job was to prosecute offenders
and then we would let the
court decide the sentencing
and then we would let
the D.C. agency in charge
of taking custody of young people
decide on the treatment
for the convicted youthful offenders.
Our team came back and determined
that there was something wrong
with the criminal justice
process as regards juveniles.
Namely that the outcomes were problematic.
Here's what we found.
We found that young people who
were successfully convicted
were either placed on
probation or committed
to the Department of Youth
and Rehabilitation Services.
Digging deeper we found
that the rate of recidivism
for young people who were placed
on probation was about 55%.
That meant that a kid who gets convicted
then placed on probation
would only be more likely
to commit more crime
and more violent crime.
We then looked at kids
who were incarcerated,
or committed to the DYRS,
Department of Youth
Rehabilitation Services.
We also found that the
outcomes were awful.
That again a high rate of
recidivism well over 50%.
And so we dared to create
a third door, a third way.
We created a diversion program
working with an office
in the D.C. government
called the Department of Human Services.
And we created this diversion program
on the basis of
(audience member coughing)
evidence based psychological
assessments of young people.
Assessments that would seek
to understand in a deep way
what is going on in their lives,
at home, at school in
an extracurricular way,
and then figure out after the assessment
what type of services these
kids could benefit from
so that they would not recidivate.
I'm happy to report to you
that after two and a half years
of this diversion program,
it's called the ACE Diversion program,
Alternatives to the Criminal Experience,
we have diverted over 1350
young people.
82%
of those juveniles have
not been re-arrested.
In short, we have completely
changed the outcome
of a very large percentage of the kids
who enter the juvenile justice system.
You students out there,
you have passions, you have
ideas, you see problems,
if you decide to spend some
time in the public service,
perhaps even run for office
you might identify a
problem not unlike the one
that we identified in the
juvenile justice realm.
And you might identify a solution.
A solution that enhances
public safety, right?
Reduces recidivism, that
enhances public safety.
And a solution that actually
helps build resilience
in young people who
overwhelmingly come to the system
as a result of their
suffering from trauma.
Trauma from growing up in neighborhoods
that are beset with violence.
Many of these kids themselves
have been victimized.
And it's really trough creative solutions
that we can have an impact.
So I really wanna emphasize
that one reason to
consider public service,
one reason to consider elective office
is the real possibility
that through your work in public service
you can actually identify a
problem and bring a solution
that will not only enhance public safety,
but will give young people, you know,
tremendous opportunity.
Let me focus on a second issue
that we had in the District of Columbia
that I know is problem elsewhere.
We talked a little bit about this earlier
in the Dean's office with
a couple of the students
who were there.
D.C. has an affordable housing crisis.
And what that means for poor people
is that invariably they are priced out
of the District of Columbia.
What it also means, unfortunately,
is that unscrupulous
developers and landlords
oftentimes seek to take
advantage of poor people
by essentially running a business,
a pattern and practice,
of being a slumlord.
Well we and our office
have been able to focus in
on the problem and we've brought
several slumlords to court.
And we have stopped their practice
of profiting from constructively
evicting poor people
only to start renovating the buildings
after the poor people have left
so that one can charge
new people higher rates.
Again, a real problem
that was occurring in
the District of Columbia
that is occurring far less frequently now.
Why?
Because we just the law
just as Charles Hamilton
Houston suggested, right,
as a tool
to help members of our
most vulnerable community.
These are the types of activities that
progressive attorney generals,
progressive lawyers take.
Let me spend a minute
of time talking about
another part of my career.
I was, as Bob nicely noted,
the Managing Partner of
the Venable law firm.
And here the lesson really
is that leadership matters.
I was the Managing Partner of the firm,
I was named that Managing
Partner in mid-2006.
The recession came into
full swing 2008, 2009,
and that time period was not a good time
to be in the practice of law,
certainly not in the private sector.
And it was not a good time
to be in law school
(audience member coughs)
as it was incredibly
difficult to find a job
during that time period.
I remember having to go
through the difficult process
of determining whether or not our law firm
would have a layoff.
And we determined that
we had to rightsize.
(audience member coughs)
And so what we did was we asked
the four division managers,
we had litigation, commercial, tax,
and intellectual property division
to identify no more than 20 associates
who would be the ones
who we would lay off.
I gotta tell you, when that
first list came back to us
I looked at the 20 names,
18 of those names were women,
seven were people of color.
And I asked my
personnel head,
one of my good friends Linda Jackson,
what's wrong with this list?
And she pointedly told me,
and I'll never forget this,
she said, "Karl, you should
be surprised by the list.
"The list comes from the managers
"who you've allowed to remain as managers.
"They're all boys.
"And they don't mean any
express harm perse to women
"or the people of color who
are lawyers in our office,
"but there's just a natural
bias that they're exhibiting".
And I said, "okay, you're right.
"What do you think we should do?"
She said, "Send that list back."
So about four lists later
(audience chuckling softly)
we got it down to 15.
There were no women on the list,
and there was one person
of color on that list.
And I mention this to you
because it was a lesson
that Linda taught me,
which is leadership matters.
And it matters that you take
care of who you also empower
at your firm or in your office.
And so I say to the students
who are no doubt aspiring leaders,
once you have the opportunity to lead
seize it.
And always understand
that you can actually impact fairness,
and equality, and equity.
It's a great lesson.
Let me give you just a couple
of other random tips I've learned
from my time in the law.
The White House job,
how did I get that job?
I was a public defender.
Now, some would say President Clinton
needed a public defender.
(all chuckling)
There was a lot of
investigations going on,
that certainly was true.
But the person who hired me at that job,
there are actually two
people at the White House
who hired me, The White House Counsel
was a gentleman named Chuck Ruff,
who's an extraordinary lawyer,
a legend in the law in
the District of Columbia.
Chuck was a Harvard
lawyer then U.S. Attorney
in the District of Columbia,
had actually been the Corporation Counsel
that served as AG of the
District of Columbia,
and he was White House Counsel.
I met Chuck through pro bono work.
And it was through working
with Chuck on a pro bono case
that we developed a
professional relationship.
And so he became familiar
with my work and me,
and he felt as though
I could help the team.
What's the lesson there?
The lesson there is doing good things
always provides opportunities,
not only to help sometimes
the person who is your client,
but also for you to
impress people around you.
The second person at the
White House who hired me
was a woman named Cheryl Mills.
She was the deputy White
House Counsel at the time.
And I had met Cheryl years
before mentoring young people
in the District of Columbia.
Again, the lesson, by doing good things
you're gonna bump into really good people.
But I think what Chuck
and Cheryl would say
to all you young lawyers is this:
You make your reputation every single day.
And that's why it's incredibly important
as a young lawyer, or young professional,
to always understand that your reputation
is vital.
And what does that mean?.
That means that whenever
you're working on anything,
or whenever you're
interacting with people,
you treat 'em with kindness,
decency and respect.
You're always reliable, right?
The worst thing in the world
a young lawyer can do
(audience member coughs)
is volunteer to be part of
a group and never show up.
What's your reputation then?
Oh, that person's kind of shaky.
They don't do what they say.
And so I say that to you because, again,
I think I got hired at the
White House Counsel's Office
because I had occasion to
demonstrate some traits
that the employers there valued.
Okay.
I've talked a lot.
I've talked a bit about
running for office.
For me it's not something that is a,
sort of, vocation perse.
I came to this late and
I'm here to tell you
that you too can come to it late.
But I gotta say that the public good
needs exceptional people to run for office
and I encourage each of
you to consider that.
I've got other things I could say,
but I'm gonna stop now and
welcome your questions.
And happy to touch on any issues
that you'd like to discuss.
Thank you very much.
(audience applauding)
- [Bob] Always need an icebreaker.
- Absolutely.
- [Bob] So I'm sure
you thought a lot about
becoming the Attorney General,
of course the campaign.
You've got into office,
you're there now a few years,
what didn't you anticipate
that you have learned?
What sort of surprised you?
- What surprised me
more than anything else
in the District of Columbia was
the fact that there's so much competition
in politics.
Namely, that elected officials
oftentimes are looking
at the next few races down the road.
And that if you're not aware of the,
you know, sort of competitiveness
of different elected officials
you might not perceive
a meeting, an issue,
or even a dispute in the right way.
And we were talking in the Dean's office
about early on in my tenure,
my friend is the mayor.
And the Mayor and I had a major squabble.
I think that staff had kind of decided
that they Mayor and I were
eventually gonna become rivals,
that maybe I would run
for the Mayor's job.
And so therefore the staffs
kind of set themselves up
almost like armed forces to fight.
Eventually I would say
that the Mayor and I
were able to make peace
and realize that, you know, were not foes,
but we are public servants
charged with trying to make things better
for D.C. residents.
And I really credit her for,
you know,
so modestly and diplomatically
burying the hatchet.
And as a new elected
official I didn't anticipate
that there would be that
kind of political in-fighting
even from people of the same party.
So I learned a lot about that.
I'd say the second thing
I learned is that lawyers
can help a lot,
but lawyers can't solve all problems.
And so as Attorney General, newly minted,
I was game to try to help
anybody and everybody
in any which way,
but oftentimes the
problems they were facing
were just simply beyond the toolbox
of law that we had at our office.
So the other lesson was
a lesson of humility
as to what we could do for people
and to never ever ever suggest
or lead someone on in thinking
that you can actually solve a problem
that is outside your lane.
Sir, can you do me a favor and stand up
and introduce yourself.
There's a microphone here.
- [Student] Okay.
- Perfect.
- [Abdul] My name is Abdul Dosunmu,
I'm a 1L here in the law school.
And first of all thank you so
much for coming this evening.
I am someone who believes
in the promise of politics
and have considered electoral
politics for myself,
but I don't think it's
a surprise to anyone
that all you have to do
is turn on the television
these days to find something about which
to be disillusioned
(door creaking)
with respect to our politics,
the role of money in
politics, the acrimony,
and also just the degree to which politics
sometimes can seem removed
from the lift experiences of real people.
So my question is
how have you navigated all of those,
sort of, disillusioning factors
about our politics to remain hopeful
about what you can accomplish
as Attorney General in D.C.?
- It's an excellent question,
and of course I've felt the same way
you have at different points
including this morning
at the gym as I was watching the news,
but the reality is that
as an elected official
one can certainly focus the toolbox,
whatever that toolbox is,
on things you can fix,
people you can help.
And I'll tell you if you
go around the country,
Democrat, Republican, and if you look at
what some of the Attorney
Generals are doing
in their jurisdictions what you'll find is
that they are absolutely
helping the people of their
states and territories.
(audience member coughs)
And so in a way
I'm not suggesting that you
not run for federal office,
but local office and running
for a position in local office
may be exactly where it's at these days
because there where the
rubber meets the road
with real people who have
real issues and real problems,
you know, you don't have to get mired
in congressional wars back and forth.
You can simply focus on a problem,
get smart people on
your team to analyze it
and then go about
bringing solutions to it.
I really think that going local and state
is exactly where it's at.
And I must tell you that in
the attorney general world
while the Democrats have
certain perspective on issues,
Republicans have different perspectives,
even still at the National
Association of Attorney General
Democrats and Republicans
are able to work together
on extraordinarily important questions.
D.C. and my office is leading
a multi-state investigation,
for example,
with the Republican Attorney
General of Tennessee.
He's just a wonderful human
being and a tremendous lawyer
and we're focused on the opioid crisis.
I don't think we've ever had
a conversation about politics.
General Slatery is his
name, General Slatery and I.
And our teams have worked as if
they're in the same office.
And so throughout the country
sometimes you've gotta
get outside of Washington.
You can actually see great
examples of elected officials
doing the job that they
said they would do,
elevating the lives of their constituents.
So don't get disheartened.
Go to where you can make change,
and increasingly that's local and state.
- I'm gonna project because
I'd rather be facing you.
I'm Jennifer Pierre I'm
a 1L at NYU, obviously.
So you mentioned your story of immigration
clearly that's a hot topic right now.
Is there a space for the AG
in the immigration discords
and immigration reform?
And if so in what ways
do you think the AG,
or other AGs can play a role?
- I think there is a role for the AGs.
I'm heartened to see my
friend Harlan Levy here
who was the Chief Deputy
of the New York AGs office
under Eric Schneiderman a few years back.
Now he's in the private
sector doing quite well.
I reference Harlan because
Harlan wrote a terrific article
about a year or so ago, right Harlan?
- [Harlan] Yeah.
- Where you, you know,
I think wisely cautioned
Attorney Generals, and
you were kind of speaking
to the Democrats, at least
that's how I took it,
to say, hey as you're feeling
your oats and filing suit
against the President of the
United States all the time
make sure that you're
actually filing suits
in areas that you have jurisdiction,
have standing, and can have an impact.
And so there is a place
for attorney generals
to wade into the waters on immigration.
In fact you saw that with
the travel ban suits.
Those were, now four suits,
brought by Democratic attorney generals
against the Administration.
You know, really, calling
out the Administration
for
unconstitutional
legislation.
And I think what you saw
was that the travel ban one,
travel ban two, travel ban three,
and the fourth iteration
have shifted over time
and the courts, you know, came in
to actually create a check and a balance
on the President of the United States.
I can tell you as a Haitian American
I looked into whether we might have
a lawsuit to file on
Temporary Protected Status.
The President recently indicated
that he was not going
to renew the TPS Status
for Haitians, Hondurans,
and El Salvadorans.
I'm not gonna let you in
fully to my legal analysis,
but let's just say that the legal analysis
led me too, you know, take
my foot off the gas a bit
because the worst thing we could do
is file suit in an important case
where honestly we might not have
the best standing to take it on.
But there are important
questions like immigration
that AGs have a voice in
and will continue to voice.
Thanks for your question.
- [Bob] Maybe one more
before we dine on some delicious food.
Another question?
- [Man] Over here.
- [Bob] Yes.
- [Isabel] I'll also project.
I'm Isabel Carey, I'm a
2L here at the law school.
And I would just love to hear
a bit more about
(door creaking)
the Office of Consumer Protection
that you've mentioned
in your lecture here.
What is the desired
formation of that office?
And what do see as opportunities
and obstacles for people?
- Great question.
So the Office of Consumer
protection is a staple
of any successful office
of attorney general.
And what the Office of Consumer Protection
and AG Offices really
seeks to do is to protect
consumers from individuals
who would separate them from their money
via fraud, right, and scams.
D.C. did not have a standalone
office of consumer protection
and so that was one of the
first tasks that we took on,
was to recruit one of the
best people in the country,
from the state of Maryland.
And I kind of upset my
colleague in Maryland
when I took his guy, (chuckles)
but Phil Ziperman came to
the District of Columbia
and really started our office.
It's a great way to
connect with the residents
of the District of Columbia,
and it was probably
the fastest way to
communicate to the residents
of the District of Columbia
that the Office of Attorney General
could really do tangible things
to help and protect the residents.
And I will say that kudos to our office.
One of the things we did was we started
a mediation group within the
Consumer Protection Bureau.
About five folks, one lawyer,
the others are
investigators and mediators.
And what those mediators will do
is they literally will
get on the telephone
with a D.C. resident who's
having an issue with a merchant
and will seek to resolve the issue
on the telephone without filing suit
with that D.C. resident.
Now occasionally we have to write letters
and maybe issue some threats
and that kind of thing,
but I'm here to say that last year alone
we returned $7 million to D.C. residents
who called the mediation number.
A really extraordinary result.
And I give credit to the
Consumer Protection Bureau
for really forging a
bond with D.C. residents
who now feel comfortable calling
the Office of Attorney General
and sharing sometimes embarrassing tales
of how they've been taken advantage of.
So it's a tremendous way
to connect with residents
and we're thrilled to
have one of the strongest
consumer protection
offices in the country.
I gotta say since were in New York,
the truth is that I model our office
after the New York AGs Office,
the California AGs
Office, and Massachusetts.
And in various ways in the future
you'll see us doing similar things
like the creation of
a civil rights bureau.
We now have an Environmental Office
with two lawyers focused
on environmental areas
as we start building
out our public law firm.
But thank you very much for your question.
- Thank you Attorney General Racine.
(all applauding)
- Thank you.
Hey Bob, can I say something?
Here's the last point.
I wanna really make this
point and make it hard.
Democratic Attorney Generals
Association came out with
an initiative called the 1881 Initiative.
The 1881 Initiative is
all about encouraging
women to run for attorney general, okay?
Why is that?
Because not unlike the rooms when I was in
when I was the Managing Partner at Venable
when there were absolutely
no other people of color
in those rooms with
other managing partners
the truth is that the AG
space needs some diversifying.
Okay?
And so I say to lawyers of
color, and women in particular,
boy oh boy the AG job is a great job
(audience chuckling softly)
and we need extraordinary women lawyers
to run for office.
(audience member coughing)
If you're interested in that kind of thing
feel free to call me
and I'll encourage you
until you hang up the phone.
(all chuckling)
Okay? Thank you.
(all applauding)
