I learned about leadership at home
through my parents. My parents
were extraordinary role models. My
mother was an educator. My mother
was a professor at the University of
the District of Columbia. My father
was the Mayor of his town in Port
A Prince, Haiti. He later became
the Haitian console in New York. I
also played sports growing up here
in DC. I had excellent coaching in
public recreation clubs, police force
club leagues, and in high school. I
learned a lot about leadership from
those sources.
Qualities of a Leader
The most important aspect of
leadership is that a leader must be
selfless. It’s fundamentally not about
the leader and his or her ego. It’s
about the team. I learned that in
order for a leader to be successful,
a leader has to collaborate with a
lot of people. It’s everybody on the
team. If it’s the government its with
other agencies. If it’s a managing
partner of a law firm, which I had
the honor of being a part of for 6.5
years, its really working with other
leaders of the firm to bring the
results to help the firm.
Its important for the leader to work
extremely hard to understand the
necessary facts so that he or she
after being advised by their team, can
make the best decisions. In making
decisions, it’s important to persuade
the members of the team in order to
get them to line up and implement
that which has been decided.
1. Being Selfless
2. Being Collaborative
3. Understand Important Facts
4. Persuade and Motivate people to accomplish
the goals
OAG Objectives & Legacy
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) for the
first time is fully independent. For the first time the
OAG has an Attorney General who is elected by
the people. Its responsibilities specifically include
always acting in the interest of the public. When
I finish my time here at the OAG, I would like
people to really know that the office functioned
independently. We were guided by law. We were also
guided by public interest. We were not guided by
the direction of a politician or convenience or any
selfish interest. We were independent. Our office
touches the lives of children in very important ways.
Unfortunately, in ways that sometimes are difficult.
There are pockets in areas of DC where kids live
in poverty, experience immense trauma and having
a very hard time developing and making it out of
their neighborhoods. I like our office to be viewed
as an office that was fundamentally focused on the
well being of kids. That we tried our best to make
sure we diverted as many kids as we possibly could
away from the criminal justice system and diverted
them to services that benefited them. Also, to allow
them to pursue their lives in an independent way
without being involved in the criminal justice system.
My third objective in leaving the office is that I
want people to know the quality of work the office
produced was truly excellent and highly respected.
I want the office to be known i