Leif Dautch

Leif Dautch is an American lawyer and politician serving as a Deputy Attorney General of California. Dautch was a candidate in the 2019 San Francisco District Attorney election, coming in fourth with 14 percent of votes cast.
Early life and career
Dautch was born in Santa Barbara, California in 1985 and grew up on his family's organic farm. He graduated from Yale University and Harvard Law School with honors, serving in student government and as an editor for the Harvard Law & Policy Review. While in law school, Dautch assisted Professor Charles Ogletree with debate prep for then-Senator Barack Obama in his 2008 presidential campaign.
After graduating from law school in 2010, Dautch clerked for Judge Carlos Bea on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco. He worked on several cases involving immigrant rights, criminal justice, environmental protection, and labor disputes. Dautch briefly joined the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore in 2011, before leaving to volunteer on the Barack Obama 2012 presidential campaign, focusing on voter protection.
Career
After the 2012 presidential election, Dautch was hired as a Deputy Attorney General under then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris. Dautch also served as a policy advisor to the Attorney General, co-authoring a groundbreaking report on transnational criminal organizations and testifying before the California State Assembly’s Public Safety Committee on legislation targeting transnational gangs. Dautch served in a supervisory role, helping manage a team of attorneys and serving on the Criminal Division’s Hiring Committee and Technology Task Force.
In 2016, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee appointed Dautch to the San Francisco Juvenile Probation Commission. As Commission President, Dautch oversaw a $35 million budget and 240-person city department, and spearheaded efforts to expand economic opportunity for justice-involved youth, including a tech coding bootcamp and culinary arts program.

Dautch served as a delegate to the California Democratic Party and was elected Vice Chair of the California Lawyers Association’s Executive Committee for Criminal Law. Dautch was recognized on Forbes’ "30 Under 30" list of rising lawyers and policymakers in 2014. He announced proposals to convert San Francisco's near-empty Juvenile Hall into a mental health justice center, launch an "Auto Burglary Task Force" focused on organized rings breaking into cars, and resurrect an Environmental Justice Unit to investigate the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard soil contamination crisis. Dautch secured endorsements from more than 150 elected officials, city commissioners, and community leaders, including the San Francisco Firefighters Union, California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, the Latino Democratic Club, the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs' Association, and the League of Conservation Voters.
Dautch came in fourth place in the election, and was automatically eliminated along with prosecutor Nancy Tung. The two highest vote-earners, public defender Chesa Boudin and interim D.A. Suzy Loftus, advanced to an automatic runoff, with Boudin earning 50.83% of votes, while Loftus earned 49.17%.

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