Law in the Public Interest: D.C.’s New Attorney General, Brian Schwalb

BY CHRISTOPHER JONES

The Office of the DC Attorney General (OAG) is unique. Unlike many other cities, the District’s residents elect their AGs. And the position as the city’s “chief legal officer” is not designed simply to apply the law dispassionately from on high, but to use it as a tool to “uphold the public interest.”

At the Washington Convention Center on Jan. 3, alongside Mayor Muriel Bowser and other recently elected D.C. officials, former trial attorney and partner-in-charge of Venable law firm’s office in the District, Brian L. Schwalb (D), swore his oath of office as the District’s second elected attorney general, following Karl Racine’s two terms in the position. Racine (D) had endorsed Schwalb to succeed him. The OAG with its broad-sweeping powers is comprised of approximately 275 attorneys and 300 other professional staff members.

We spoke with Schwalb about what inspires him in his role as the District’s AG, his key priorities and challenges, and how his role might affect Georgetowners.

Schwalb is “committed to fighting for D.C., advancing the public interest, and ensuring that the law works to make the District safer, healthier, and more equitable for all who live and work here,” according to the OAG.

A third-generation Washingtonian, Schwalb earned his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1992, “completed a two-year judicial clerkship,” and then served as a trial attorney in the Tax Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Then, entering private practice, he represented clients in a “multitude of high stakes matters including advocating for people injured by excessive, unconstitutional police force, defrauded out of their assets, and fighting for their lives on death row.” He served as a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and became “an experienced law firm leader, having served as Venable’s firm-wide Vice Chairman.” Schwalb and his wife Mickie Simon “live in Ward 3 where they raised their three daughters: Jessica, Allison and Sydney,” each having attended D.C. public schools.

We asked Schwalb what inspires and prepares him for his role as the city’s AG. “My wife and I raised our three daughters here in Washington and I love this city,” he said. “And I firmly believe this is the greatest city in the world to live in for a variety of reasons. I think the challenges that Washington, D.C., confronts are challenges that the law is uniquely equipped to address and make better.”

So, what are some of the city’s biggest challenges?

“I believe it’s the gap between those who are enjoying the prosperity and the abundance of resources we have in our city and those who aren’t,” Schwalb said. “And the opportunities those resources create are not shared equally across the city. So we have a widening gulf of income, wealth, and access to health care and healthy food and the ability to create intergenerational wealth that some, but not all Washingtonians have. So, the opportunity to put the law to work in furtherance of the city I love… I hope helps me do this awesome job as well as I possibly can.”

Schwalb outlined his four top priorities as AG. Each is intended to address the “root causes” surrounding social dislocation, poverty, and crime that often undermine the social fabric and contribute to residents’ legal struggles.

The first is using the law to help the children in the city thrive. “Making sure we raise children in our city to be safe and independent and healthy and hopeful,” he emphasized. “Our future is dependent on young people continuing to grow and stay engaged and live hopeful lives. Hopeful kids are healthy and safer for themselves and those around them. I’m the [city’s] chief juvenile justice prosecutor but I don’t think the [OAG] should be having its first interaction with young people when the police may be charging them with a crime.” Second, is “closing the equity gaps in our city, … making sure all people who live in Washington have the same kind of access to opportunity and income and wealth and good jobs and health care.”

Third is “protecting core democratic values,” such as “standing up against hate, White supremacy, anti-Semitism and homophobia.” And “right now, fighting for Home Rule and [D.C.] statehood are of the utmost importance.”

Schwalb’s fourth priority is to continue to build “institutional excellence within [the OAG] … to make sure we’re providing the kind of legal counsel and legal services to the city and to the residents and to the public interest that people who live and pay taxes in the District of Columbia deserve.”

Georgetown Has New Police Commander

BY CHRISTOPHER JONES

There’s a new police commander in town. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) announced March 13 that Commander John Branch of MPD’s Seventh District – a nearly 30-year veteran of the force – has taken over leadership of the Second District serving Georgetown from Commander Duncan Bedlion who’s been promoted to “lead functions within the Homeland Security Bureau.” Commander Bedlion had served as Second District Commander since January, 2019.

According to MPD, Branch is a native Washingtonian and graduate of Ballou Senior High School where he was a member of the Track and Field team and earned an athletic scholarship to Howard University. Branch told ANC 2E commissioners in their April 3 virtual meeting that he went to the Olympic trials in 1988 and ran against teams from Russia, France and Germany and they won the gold medal in the 4x400 relay. “I feel like Forrest Gump a little bit -- like I’ve done a bit of everything” for the MPD, he said, including scuba diving and helicopter piloting. While his running days are behind him, he quipped, “now all I do is run my mouth, but I’m pretty good at it.”

Branch “began his career in 1993 in the Fourth District, first as a patrol officer and then as part of the 4D Gun Unit.” Then, in March 1997, “moved to the Narcotics and Special Investigation Division (NSID), where he spent two years before he earned a position as a tactical officer with the Emergency Response Team.” He then “became a helicopter pilot with the Air Support Unit” in December 2007. By 2010, Branch was “promoted to sergeant,” returning to the Fourth District “in charge of the 4D Crime Suppression Team.” Soon, he also assumed responsibility for the 4D Vice Unit as well.

By November 2014, Branch was serving as a sergeant of the Emergency Response Team as well as a helicopter pilot in the Special

Operations Division. He was promoted to lieutenant in November 2016, serving in the Seventh District through 2018 and placed in charge of that district’s Special Missions Unit. By 2018, he was promoted to captain and assigned to the Sixth District. He was selected as one of six captains to manage an area designated as a Summer Crime Prevention Initiative Area (SCPI). He was then assigned to the Narcotics and Special Investigations Division and placed in charge of field operations.

In January 2021, “shortly after the Capitol riot and insurrection, Branch was reassigned to the Special Operations Division and placed in charge of the Traffic Safety and Special Enforcement Branch, Events/Presidential Escort Team. On May 7, 2021, Branch was promoted to commander and assigned to the Seventh District where he served for almost two years before taking command of the Second District.

Branch became a familiar figure on television following several shootings in the Seventh District. In September 2021 after a mass shooting outside a shopping center in Southeast D.C., Branch “walked around Alabama Avenue talking to members of the community before addressing a few reporters who were still on the scene,” according to WTOP News. “After a few minutes of talking about the particular incident, just the latest of several shootings that have plagued that area recently, the frustration over what happened — the brazenness and willingness of people to just “spray and pray” as he called it — was evident in his voice.” For Branch, community policing would have to be part of the solution to gun violence in the District. “It’s very personal. I take my job seriously. I want to have a good society where everyone can thrive and live and enjoy themselves,” he said, emphasizing that it will take support throughout the community, not just policing, to make an impact.