Christian D. Menefee, Esq. .................................................Harris County Attorney’s Office

Christian D. Menefee, Esq.

2022 TRAILBLAZER

As the Harris County Attorney, Christian D. Menefee is the chief civil lawyer for the largest county in Texas. He manages an office of 250+ attorneys and staff who represent the county, its 60 elected officials, and its 18,000+ employees in all civil matters and lawsuits. Elected at 32 years old, he is the youngest person and the first African American to serve as Harris County Attorney. Prior to taking office, Christian practiced at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, focusing on complex commercial litigation and bankruptcy matters in federal court, and representing clients in matters involving the US Department of Justice, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and other government agencies. Christian began his legal career at Norton Rose Fulbright, where he focused on business litigation in federal and state courts and corporate investigations. In private practice, Christian also focused heavily on pro bono work, including advising the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, advising immigrants and their families at Bush Intercontinental Airport during the “Muslim ban,” and working with Texas Appleseed on expanding alternatives to involuntary commitment for the mentally ill. Christian also has a long history of spending his nights and weekends working to better his community. Christian served on Houston’s Independent Police Oversight Board, which is charged with evaluating all Houston Police Department (HPD) internal affairs investigations involving excessive force or the use of a firearm. In this role, Christian wrote and championed a new HPD regulation requiring that when an officer uses his firearm against a civilian, the officer must provide emergency first aid until a medic arrives. Christian also served on the boards of the Houston Young Lawyers Association (HYLA), the State Bar of Texas’s Minority Counsel Program, and a nonprofit aimed at providing job readiness programs to ex-offenders. In his role at HYLA, he ran a program that took students at underserved public high schools on a field trip to the Harris County Civil Courthouse, at which judges and lawyers encouraged the students by reminding them that they were capable of being lawyers one day. For his involvement in that program, Christian received the President’s Award from the Parents for Public Schools of Houston in 2018. Christian is a graduate of Leadership Houston (Class XXXVI) and the United Way Project Blueprint board leadershiptraining program (Class XXXV). The son of two veterans, Christian attended public schools in Harris County and was the first in his family to attend college. He is a graduate of The University of Texas at San Antonio, and Washington University St. Louis School of Law. Christian and his wife Kaitlyn have a son, Gabriel, and two rescue dogs, Howie and Kennedy.

Christian D. Menefee, Esq. Harris County Attorney’s Office 1019 Congress, 15th Floor Houston, Texas 77002 www.cao.harriscountytx.gov