Larry Krasner
Contributor
Larry Krasner is the District Attorney of Philadelphia. He was born in 1961 in St. Louis, the son of a World War II veteran father and minister mother. After attending public schools in St. Louis and the Philadelphia area, Krasner earned degrees from the University of Chicago and Stanford Law School with the help of student loans and scholarships. After graduating in 1987, he received several job offers from prosecutors’ offices around the country, but instead chose to return to Philadelphia to work as a public defender. In 1993, Krasner started his own law practice in Center City specializing in criminal defense and civil rights. Since then, he has tried thousands of cases in criminal and civil court and represented countless defendants and filed more than 75 civil rights lawsuits against the police for corruption and physical abuse. He has defended, normally at no cost, protesters at RNC 2000 and DNC 2016, members of ACT UP, Black Lives Matter, Casino-Free Philadelphia, DACA Dreamers, Decarcerate PA, Earth Quaker Action Team, Heeding God’s Call, Kensington Welfare Rights Union, Occupy Philly and Reclaim Philadelphia, advocates of public school funding and opponents of the death penalty. Krasner lives in Philadelphia with his wife of thirty-three years.
