Biography

Roy L. Austin, Jr. is the Inaugural Director of the Howard Law Artificial Intelligence Initiative at Howard University School of Law. Previously, he spent over four years as Meta's Vice President of Civil Rights and Deputy General Counsel, where he led the company's civil rights strategy and compliance efforts.

Before joining Meta, Austin was a partner with Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis LLP and McDermott Will & Emery, focusing on criminal defense, civil litigation, and civil rights cases. His extensive government service includes serving as a trial attorney with the Criminal Section of the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, where he investigated and prosecuted hate crime and police brutality cases, and an Assistant U.S. Attorney in DC, where he focused on domestic violence, sexual assault, fraud and public corruption prosecutions. Austin has tried thirty jury trials.

As Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division, Austin supervised the Criminal Section and the Special Litigation Section's law enforcement portfolio, overseeing critical civil rights enforcement initiatives. He also served as Deputy Assistant to the President in the White House Domestic Policy Council's Office of Urban Affairs, Justice and Opportunity. In this role, he co-authored a report on Big Data and Civil Rights, worked with the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, helped develop the Police Data Initiative, worked on the expansion of reentry assistance, and served as a member of President Obama's My Brother's Keeper Task Force.