How Does Harris View Big Business? Her Time as California’s Top Lawyer Offers Clues

How Does Harris View Big Business? Her Time as California’s Top Lawyer Offers Clues

As attorney general for six years, Kamala Harris took a moderate, realpolitik approach to going after big business, aides say.Kamala D. Harris in 2011, announcing an investigation into mortgage fraud with Nevada's attorney general, Catherine Cortez Masto.Credit...Luis Sinco/Los Angeles TimesBy Kate KellyIn September 2011, some of the nation's biggest banks were about to sign a $4 billion legal settlement with regulators for improperly foreclosing on homeowners. But Kamala Harris, the attorney general of California, felt it didn't do nearly enough to help her constituents. She told lawyers for JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America that if the banks didn't raise their offer, she would walk. And when they balked, she did.Her hardball tactics eventually helped secure an $18 billion settlement for Californians.The case — and, more broadly, Ms. Harris's six-year