WASHINGTON, D. C. – Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced that Robyn R. Bender, an experienced advocate and former Assistant Deputy Attorney General and Interim Chief Deputy Attorney General at the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, will join D.C.’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG) to lead the new Public Advocacy Division. The Public Advocacy Division will consolidate the agency’s significant work on behalf of the public and will focus on bringing litigation to preserve affordable housing; protect residents from wage theft and other abuses; and defend public integrity by pursuing matters including false claims, Medicaid fraud, antitrust, nonprofit organization abuses, and non-resident tuition fraud.

“Robyn Bender’s experience managing high-profile litigation against powerful interests, including drug companies, Wall Street banks and for-profit colleges, will be an asset to our work on behalf the residents of the District of Columbia,” said Attorney General Racine. “In creating our Public Advocacy Division, we are following in the footsteps of other states with elected attorneys general whose affirmative litigation divisions serve as innovative and aggressive public watchdogs. Our new division will amplify our existing work on behalf of the public.”

As part of her work in the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office, Ms. Bender managed all of the litigation and staff in the Consumer Protection, Civil and Environmental Litigation and Rate Intervention Divisions, and represented the office on multistate investigations and litigation. Prior to her work in Kentucky, Ms. Bender spent 15 years in the District, attending law school and practicing as an attorney. She served as Senior Counsel at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), representing the SEC in litigation in accounting fraud, insider trading and market manipulation. She also worked on litigation at a private firm. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Duke University and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

“I am very excited to be back in the District and look forward to leading OAG’s efforts in public interest litigation,” said Deputy Attorney General Bender.