TWO OF A KIND


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N EARLY SIGN OF Maya and Kamala Harris’s future as lawyers and as advocates for so-called underdogs occurred when they were only nine and 12 years old, respectively. Teir family moved into a


Montreal apartment complex where children were banned from playing in the grassy courtyard. “It was a ridiculous prohibition,” Maya recalls. Te girls urged neighborhood children to help


them get the courtyard ban reversed. Before long, a group including the Harris sisters descended upon the apartment building manager to plead their case. After they prevailed, soccer matches among all the youngsters ensued on the grounds. As daughters of parents who were active in the


U.S. civil rights movement, both girls grew up to pursue ambitious careers in the law in hopes of bettering the human condition. A longtime prosecutor, Kamala is attorney general for the state of California and a rapidly emerging figure in national politics. A civil rights lawyer and former law school dean, Maya is vice president for democ- racy, rights, and justice for the New York-based Ford Foundation, an independent grant-making organization that promotes social change globally. With childhood activism long over, the Harris


sisters have yet to work side-by-side as lawyers. Nevertheless, “we are truly united in the pursuit of justice,” Maya says. “We seek the same ends, even if the means are sometimes different.” She adds, “It is an extraordinary privilege to


live a life in service of others and to work toward a more just and equal world.” Kamala agrees. “In every office I have held, I


wanted be a voice for voiceless and vulnerable people.”


CAREER CRIME-FIGHTER Kamala Harris’s professional journey began in 1990 in the district attorney’s office for Alameda County, which encompasses her hometown of Oakland, Calif. In eight years, she developed a specialty in prosecuting perpetrators of child sexual assaults. One case became seminal. Te teenage victim had lost trust in her drug-addicted father and other adults and eventually tried to run away from a foster home by accepting offers of help from a group of seemingly friendly young men. Instead,


DIVERSITY & THE BAR® JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013


she was taken to an apartment and gang-raped. When the trial of two of the men began, the


girl showed up to court inappropriately dressed, chewing a wad of gum, and appearing not to care about the proceedings. Worried that jurors might conclude the girl had consented to sex and was falsely accusing the men, Kamala told jurors, “I know this is not a girl you would ever want to be friends with your child, or even get anywhere near your child. But what the defendants did to her was a crime. One of the reasons the defendants picked her as their victim is because they figured you would not care about her and not believe her.” Privately, she told the girl her appearance and


attitude made Kamala’s job more difficult. Te girl shared doubts about the jury, explaining that no adults had ever believed her whenever she had previ- ously tried to report abuse and neglect. So the girl believed this jury and this trial would be no different. When the trial resumed, the girl “stopped crack-


ing her gum long enough to give testimony, but I knew she felt exposed,” Kamala says, describing the girl’s discomfort in the presence of jurors. Her subsequent trial victory was tempered by the fact the girl ran away from foster care again—before jurors returned their verdict of guilt. Nonetheless, this case and the verdict reminded her of how the law is intended to apply to each person and the impor- tance of justice for each person. Tese notions, she says, continue to drive her today. In 1998, Kamala joined the San Francisco


district attorney’s office, where she led the career criminal unit and her growing skills drew notice. “She was sensitive and caring but tough enough


to know what the right remedy was,” says Louise Renne, who as San Francisco’s city attorney hired Kamala in 2000 to head what is now known as the division on children and families. Because her city work sometimes involved child


abuse and other troubling allegations, it required Kamala “to deal with stressful situations as profes- sionally and sensitively as possible,” Renne says, adding, “She had plenty of both qualities.” Renne is currently partner of the San Francisco office of Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai LLP.


MOVING UP Kamala won election to San Francisco district attorney in 2003 and was re-elected four years


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