Kenneth Allen Polite, Jr.

Kenneth Allen Polite, Jr. (born 1976) is the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Polite was born in 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana to teenage parents. His mother, Rosalind, was still in high school when he was born and his father Kenneth Polite Sr., eventually became a police officer. Along with brothers Damion and Tyrrel, Polite was raised by his single mother in the Lower Ninth Ward. In 1993, he graduated as valedictorian from De La Salle High School in New Orleans. He received an artium baccalaureus degree in 1997 from Harvard University. He received a Juris Doctorate in 2000 from Georgetown University Law Center.

In 2001, Polite served as a law clerk to Judge Thomas L. Ambro of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. From 2002 to 2006, he served as an associate at the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York City. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York, from 2007 to 2010. From 2010 to 2013, he was a shareholder at the law firm of Liskow & Lewis in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he headed the firm's White Collar Crime Defense Group and served as the hiring partner.

United States Attorney

On June 27, 2013, President Obama nominated Polite to be United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana for a term of four years, the office having been vacated by Jim Letten, who resigned on December 11, 2012. His nomination was reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 12, 2013, by voice vote. On September 17, 2013, his nomination was confirmed by unanimous consent. He received his commission on September 20, 2013, and took the oath of office the same day. In 2014, Polite created the Crescent City Keepers Mentoring Program, aimed at using faith communities to mentor at-risk youth. He also created an anti corruption unit to address claims of civil rights violations and public corruption. That same year, Polite introduced the 30-2-2 reentry program for former inmates. The program joined with 30 local businesses who agreed to hire two formerly incarcerated individuals for two years.

In 2015, Polite was named to the Attorney General's Advisory Committee, a national advisory board for the U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch. The advisory board provides advice and counsel to the Attorney General and other Justice Department officials on issues related to policy and operations.

Under Polite, the US Attorney's office has brought several high profile cases against individuals such as Robert Durst, Ray Nagin, Big Freedia and Darren Sharper.

Polite is married to Florencia Greer Polite, an OBGYN physician and Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the LSU Health Sciences Center. The couple met while attending Harvard. The couple and their two daughters live in New Orleans.

He has served on the Louisiana Civil Service Commission and the board of New Orleans College Prep Charter School in Central City. Polite cites the murder of his half-brother in New Orleans in 2004, as a factor in becoming a prosecutor.

Polite is a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. In 2015, Polite received an honorary doctorate from Loyola University.