Markenzy Lapointe, born in Haiti, is historic front-runner for U.S. Attorney in Miami
With sweeping turnover in the U.S. justice system under way in the new Biden administration, a Black lawyer has emerged as the leading candidate for the high-profile job of U.S. Attorney in Miami.
If President Joe Biden nominates Markenzy Lapointe, 53, for the influential post, it would be a historic choice in one of the most dynamic federal prosecutor’s offices in the nation.
Not only would his nomination be a first in the Southern District of Florida, but it would also signal Biden’s nod to the Black vote that helped him defeat Donald Trump in November’s presidential election. Lapointe is the only candidate to be interviewed by the White House counsel so far for the U.S. Attorney’s job, reflecting the strength of his prospects.
Prosecutors who worked with Lapointe when he was a young prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the 2000 era said he has the respect of his colleagues and an impressive personal story.
Lapointe was born in Haiti and moved with his family to Miami in his teen years. Lapointe went on to become a decorated Marine who served in Operation Desert Storm in Iraq and later obtained a law degree from Florida State University. He joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2002, becoming the first Haitian-American prosecutor in that office. He’s now a partner at a downtown law firm, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, and serves as president of the Haitian Lawyers Association.
A website summary of his legal background notes that Lapointe is a former Justice Department prosecutor with “a varied practice that includes high-stakes commercial, products liability and professional malpractice disputes, as well as criminal investigations.”
Lapointe, who declined to comment for this story, is considered the front-runner for the office’s top job, but there are a handful of other candidates who have expressed interest in the position, including former federal prosecutors Jacqueline Arango, David Buckner and Andres Rivero.
Jockeying for the job, which oversees more than 200 prosecutors from Key West to Fort Pierce and prosecutes corruption, fraud, drug trafficking and terrorism cases, began even before Biden was sworn in as president on Jan. 20. Interest has heightened for the South Florida post as the Justice Department said Tuesday that it has asked for the resignation of almost all Trump-appointed U.S. attorneys across the country. That is a routine policy during transitions between presidential administrations.
South Florida’s current U.S. Attorney, Ariana Fajardo Orshan, made history herself in 2018 when she was appointed by Trump as the first woman for the post. Fajardo is a former Miami-Dade Circuit Court judge and assistant state attorney.
Certainly, Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, both Republicans, will exert influence over Fajardo’s replacement, but their power has diminished with Trump no longer in the White House and the Senate evenly split along Democratic and Republican party lines. Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris, would be the tie-breaker in any 50-50 confirmation vote.
In December, Christopher Norwood, a member of the Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee, touted Lapointe as a top candidate for the U.S. Attorney’s position in a Miami Herald opinion piece titled “It’s Payback Time for Our Support.”
“We need to ask ourselves: Is there an African-American lawyer among us that is not only qualified, but who also has the respect and commitment to public service who is deserving of this high appointment? Of course, there is. In fact, there are several,” Norwood wrote. “Markenzy Lapointe is the only Black attorney among those said to be in consideration for the post.
“With recent unjustified police killings of Black men, which resulted in protests nationwide, prosecutors, including those at the federal level, [we] must be more cognizant of and sensitive to Black concerns as they pursue justice. It’s astounding that we have never had a Black state attorney in Miami or U.S. attorney in this federal district. Ever.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 3:24 PM.
