When Kamala Harris became first black, South Asian and vice-president of American history, her husband, Doug Emhoff, became the very first second gentleman in the country.
Emhoff, who was described as “the secret weapon” of Biden-Harris’ campaign during the 2020 campaign, is an entertainment lawyer. In a decision that challenged stereotypical gender standards for political spouses, he left his law in order to focus on the support of Harris’s political career.
As a second gentleman, he defended causes such as the fight against anti-Semitism, the promotion of gender equality and praising the achievements of the construction of the Biden-Harris administration.
Upon his return to his legal profession as a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher after the loss of Harris in 2024, the firm concluded an agreement with President Donald Trump to provide $ 100 million in Pro Bono legal services supporting “conservative ideals”, which prompted calls to militants to resign.
Here are 10 things to know about Emhoff.
Doug Emhoff was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in New Jersey before moving to California with his family at the age of 17.
David Zalubowski / AP
Emhoff lived in Old Bridge and Matawan, New Jersey, from 1969 to 1981. He Written on x In 2019, this New Jersey “is still in my veins”.
He has been a lawyer for entertainment for over 25 years.
Amy Sussman / Getty Images for THR
Emhoff was a partner of Dla Piper in Los Angeles specializing in intellectual property and entertainment and media law. He graduated in law at the University of Southern California.
It is a dispute of cases linked to the intellectual property of Taco Bell Chihuahua and the viral sensation “Pizza Rat”.
Mitchell Gerber / Getty images
A Michigan company named WRENCH continued Taco Bell for a breach of contract, saying that Taco Bell had taken the character of Chihuahua that they invented to another advertising agency, TBWA, for adaptation in a television series. A federal judge ruled that Taco Bell – not TBWA, thanks to Emhoff – was to pay $ 42 million, the Seattle Times reported.
He also represented Jukin, a media company that holds the rights to the viral video “Pizza Rat” showing a rat leading to a New York slice in a flying of metro stairs, in prosecution against the violation of copyright. As a result, Rat pizza gifs have been shot on the internet, the Washington Post reported.
He met Kamala Harris at a blind meeting in 2013.
Jesse Grant / Getty Images for Children’s Defense Fund
The two were set up at a blind meeting by Harris’s friend, Chrisette Hudlin, who met Emhoff through work.
“In the morning after our first meeting, @douglasemhoff sent me a list of his dates available for the next two months,” Harris wrote on Instagram on Emhoff’s birthday in 2020. “He said:” I want to see if we can make this work “. We have been working since.”
Emhoff has often described the meeting with Harris as “love at first sight”.
The couple got married during a ceremony officiated by Harris Maya’s sister in August 2014.
Rich Polk / Getty images for Lacma
Harris and Emhoff held their marriage in a courthouse in Santa Barbara, California.
The ceremony incorporated elements of each of their inheritances – Emhoff wore a flower around its neck according to Indian tradition, and they walked on a glass in a Jewish marriage ritual.
He has two children, Cole and Ella, of a previous marriage to Kerstin Emhoff.
Tony Avelar / AP
Doug and Kerstin have divorced after 16 years and remain good friends. Kerstin is also a friend with Harris – she even volunteered for the Harris campaign.
Cole obtained a baccalaureate in Psychology from Colorado College in 2017, and Ella studied clothing and textiles at the School of Design Parsons. Harris wrote in Elle magazine that she and Emhoff’s children did not like the term “stepmom”, so they started calling her “Momala”.
In an interview with the New York Times in 2021, Cole Emhoff described Emhoff and Harris as “almost cute in compensation and coupley”.
He was the first Jewish spouse of a vice-president.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds-Pool / Getty Images
Emhoff has often talked about his family and her inheritance in the rallies of the White House for Jewish festivals such as the House House Hanukkah. He and Harris also affixed a Mezuzah, a Jewish ritual object, at the door of the official residence of the vice-president.
During the time of Harris as vice-president, Emhoff left his practice of law and became a law professor at Georgetown.
Da Varela / Miami Herald / Tribune News Service via Getty Images
Emhoff taught a class entitled “Dispusts of the entertainment law”.
“I wanted to teach and serve the next generation of young lawyers for a long time,” he said in a statement. “I could not be more excited to join the Georgetown community.”
He’s a sports fan.
Images Alex Wong / Getty
Emhoff was a member of the Hillcrest Country Club, a historically Jewish Country Club of Los Angeles which formed when other establishments did not admit the Jews, reported the Washington Post. For a while, his Twitter biography included the descriptor “Golfer Wannabe”.
Emhoff was also photographed by forming its March Madness support aboard the Air Force two in 2021 and has a fantastic football team called Nirvana.
After the loss of Harris during the 2024 presidential election, he returned to his career in law as a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
Andrew Kelly / Reuters
In April, Trump announced that the company had reached an agreement with the White House so as not to engage in hiring practices linked to diversity, equity and inclusion and to provide $ 100 million in Pro Bono work, including “conservative ideals”.
“Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP has proactively contacted President Trump and his administration, offering their decisive commitment to end the armament of the judicial system and the legal profession,” the White House said in a press release on Truth Social. “The president keeps his promises of eradication of partisan law in America and to restore freedom and justice for all.”
The news comes in the middle of a certain number of decrees targeting security authorizations and government contracts of large law firms affiliated with causes and political figures opposed by Trump. Many decrees have been blocked by federal judges.
Legal activists have called for Emhoff to resign from the company. Emhoff and Willkie Farr & Gallagher did not immediately respond to a request for comments.