Karl Racine

Karl Racine is the former attorney general of the District of Columbia. He was sworn in as the District of Columbia’s first elected Attorney General in 2015 and was reelected to a second term in 2018, where he served until January 2, 2023. As Attorney General, Karl was front-and-center on emerging issues that intersect with artificial intelligence, big data, privacy and competition law. He has been a national leader in holding big tech companies accountable and fighting for the privacy rights of consumers. Lawsuits he pioneered as Attorney General have been credited with bringing issues–such as geolocation tracking and inadequate data protection–into the national spotlight and are being replicated by bipartisan attorneys general across the country. Outside of litigation, Karl has been a vocal advocate calling on tech companies to be responsible content moderators. After the January 6th insurrection, Karl's advocacy prompted Facebook to take down targeted ads of military tactical gear and weapons accessories until after the inauguration.

Karl serves on the board of directors of Safe Harbor Financial, a financial services technology firm that serves the regulated cannabis industry. In 2021, Karl served as President of the bipartisan National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG). In 2022, NAAG awarded him the highest honor bestowed to a sitting Attorney General—the Kelley-Wyman Award. Karl draws on over 30 years of legal and leadership experience. Over the course of his career, he has worked at the D.C. Public Defender Service, where he represented District residents who could not afford a lawyer, served as Associate White House Counsel to President Bill Clinton, and worked on criminal cases and complex civil litigation at private firms. While in private practice, he was elected managing partner of his firm, Venable LLP, and became the first African-American managing partner of a top-100 American law firm.

Karl holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.