Prosecution as a Public Service: A Conversation with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg

Bring your lunch and questions for a brown bag conversation with the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg. Hear DA Bragg talk about his own career path and the importance of public service in today’s environment. The conversation will be moderated by Jamie Wacks, Lecturer on Law.

Please RSVP. This event will be capped at 85 people. This event is open to HLS students.

Alvin Bragg is the 37th District Attorney elected in Manhattan. Alvin – a lifelong Manhattanite who served as a state and federal prosecutor – has spent more than two decades fighting to make our communities safer and our criminal justice system fairer.

Alvin has seen the creation or expansion of several different units with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He created the Office’s first Special Victims Division with specially trained prosecutors and staff who handle Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence, Child Abuse, and more. He has overseen the creation of the Pathways to Public Safety to address recidivism and enhance public safety and has created the Office’s first Worker Protection Unit, as well as the Office’s first Housing and Tenant Protection Unit, to prosecute companies and landlords that take advantage of New Yorkers. Immediately upon taking office, Alvin created a Post-Conviction Justice Unit to reinvestigate closed cases where there are credible claims of innocence or unjust conviction. He has also expanded the purview of the Police Accountability Unit, which he directly oversees.

Alvin served as an Assistant Attorney General at the New York State Attorney General’s Office and as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. In these roles, Alvin handled a wide array of criminal cases, including armed robbery, assault, gun possession, witness tampering, narcotics and gun trafficking, wage and hour violations, public corruption, money laundering, and antitrust violations. For example, he successfully prosecuted a bribery scheme involving corrupt politicians of both political parties, the owner of a multi-million dollar business for laundering millions of dollars for an international drug cartel, an FBI agent for making false statements, a government contractor for diverting approximately $1.7 million designed to provide internet access to public school classrooms, and individuals blocking a reproductive health facility.

From 2013 to 2018, Alvin served in a number of leadership roles at the New York State Attorney General’s Office. He ended his service there as the Chief Deputy Attorney General in New York State, overseeing more than 1,500 people, a budget of $225 million, and the office’s criminal and civil investigations and litigation, including health care fraud, public corruption, narcotics trafficking, wage-and-hour investigations, tenant harassment, and securities fraud. In addition, he served as the first Chief of a special unit that investigated deaths caused by police conduct.

Alvin earned his A.B. from Harvard University, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, clerked for Hon. Robert P. Patterson, Jr. in the Southern District of New York, and was a Visiting Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Racial Justice Project at New York Law School. Alvin is a former member of the Board of Directors of the New York Urban League and a Sunday School teacher at his church.