Harold F. Pryor was elected Broward State Attorney (Florida’s 17^th Judicial Circuit) in November 2020. He leads a staff of 462 employees, including 213 prosecutors, whose mission is to make our community safer while working to ensure justice, equity and fairness for everyone affected by our criminal justice system. He is the first Black state attorney in Broward and the first Black man to be elected state attorney in Florida.

Pryor is a sixth-generation Floridian. He is married to an attorney and they have two young children.

Pryor attended and graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. He received the Department of Political Science’s Multicultural Scholar of the Year award. Due to his exemplary service in student government and his work with the Center for Leadership & Development, Pryor was inducted into Florida Blue Key, the state’s oldest and most prestigious leadership honor society. Pryor graduated from Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad College of Law where he was a member of the Nova Trial Association and junior staff editor for the International Law Students Association’s Journal of International & Comparative Law. His law school classmates chose him to deliver the graduation commencement address.

Pryor’s legal career includes experience as a prosecutor, a civil attorney in private practice, and as a corporate lawyer. He started his legal career serving as a Broward assistant state attorney, prosecuting serious criminal offenses in the Felony Trial Unit. He also practiced in the private sector where he specialized in business litigation, the Federal Communications Commission, consumer-related issues, employment law, and commercial transactions. He earned a reputation as a skilled trial lawyer who is tough but fair. He believes in compassion for victims. Pryor strongly believes that securing a guilty verdict should never be a prosecutor’s primary goal but that the pursuit of truth, fairness, and justice should be paramount.

Pryor is a past president of the historic T.J. Reddick Bar Association, Broward County’s Black bar association. Pryor led the campaign with fellow leaders in the legal community that persuaded the Broward County Commission to rename the North Wing of the courthouse in honor of the late Judge T.J. Reddick, Jr., the first Black attorney to open an office and practice in Broward County and the county’s first Black judge.

Pryor’s passions include mentoring young people and advocating for childhood literacy. He is an active member of the Broward County Bar Association and the Florida Bar. The President of the Florida Bar appointed Pryor to serve on the Florida Bar Board of Governors as a Board Liaison on behalf of Government Lawyers in the state of Florida. Pryor served as a member of the Florida Supreme Court’s Juvenile Drug Court Guidelines Subcommittee of the Steering Committee on Problem-Solving Courts. Pryor has been recognized as the Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Government Lawyer of the Year; the Virgil Hawkins Chapter of the National Bar Association’s Young Lawyer of the Year; the National Bar Association’s Nation’s Best Advocates: 40 Under 40; and Zeta Chi Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.’s Citizen of the Year.

As the county’s chief law enforcement official, Pryor is committed to seeking justice and standing up for what is right. He is committed to making sensible reforms to our criminal justice system. He is dedicated to serving the people of Broward County and making our community safer and better for all who live, work, and play here.