Masai-Maliek King Has a Mission to Serve

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Masai-Maliek King spent twenty-five years as a criminal prosecutor in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, before becoming vice president and litigation counsel at the Massachusetts-based financial services company State Street. As an assistant district attorney in the largest prosecutor’s office in New England, King helped build bridges between the community and an often-misunderstood profession.

“People always think prosecutors just want to lock people up, but that’s not true of the ones I’ve worked with. In my former office, we tried to be tough on crime but also cognizant of the communities, the victims, and the defendants we served,” King says. “My parents engrained in me that if you can help somebody, help somebody. Particularly, if you can help someone who’s Black get into a better situation that’ll benefit them and generations down the line, do that.”

As a Black man working in predominately Black or minority neighborhoods, he understood the importance of having a person of color in the courtroom on the prosecution side, King explains. “I hoped it would give people some comfort that fair recommendations would be made on their case,” he says.

“My parents engrained in me that if you can help somebody, help somebody.”

Masai-Maliek King

King’s mission to serve his community often had life-changing implications. When he was assigned gang cases that ultimately could not proceed in court, he gave his card to each defendant, asking if they needed help getting a job or if they just wanted someone to talk to. One instance stands out to the leader: six young men were involved in an altercation that led to a shootout. King dismissed the matters when the evidence changed post indictment. King received a phone call from one of the young men involved.

“The young man said he didn’t like the path he was heading down and wanted to work. So, I connected him with a colleague I knew in the construction business,” King remembers. “He went on to work with him for a few years, but after that I lost touch with him.”

Several years later, King was at the zoo with his family when the young man approached him. He introduced King to his son and his wife. King still remembers what he said.

“‘Thank you for giving me a break all those years ago,’” King recalls. “The biggest thing to me was that he was still alive. Seeing him as a family man in a better place in his life was the perfect moment for me.”

After decades of changing and transforming lives, King was ready for a change himself.

“If you have the same meal every day for twenty years, you get really good at making it,” he says. “If you’re out of ingredients, you can still make it happen to the point where you don’t even think about it anymore. When people came to me with questions or problems, you know how to solve them. To me, that wasn’t satisfying, I wanted a challenge that would allow me to use my skill set but also give me the opportunity to do something I hadn’t done before.”

“If you’re prepared, you’re not surprised by anything. If you do that and have good relationships, there’s no door that won’t open for you.”

Masai-Maliek King

In 2023, he got that opportunity at State Street, a global bank offering a multitude of financial services headquartered in Boston with operations worldwide. While working in a large bank isn’t as sexy as criminal law, it still requires him to leverage the skills he used as a high performing prosecutor, including the ability to build relationships.

“Building relationships both inside and outside of State Street has been one of my proudest accomplishments so far. This is a relationship business just like criminal law,” King explains. “That’s how coworkers trust you and how clients trust you. You give your word, and that’s all the integrity you have; you have to follow through with what you have said you will do.”

Some of his other highlights have included being part of an internal DEI subcommittee, which has helped to put on panel discussions about important diversity issues. Moving forward, he wants not only to expand on that work, but also to get more experience outside of litigation, including on the business side of the bank.

King believes that young people seeking success should focus on preparation.

“If you’re prepared, you’re not surprised by anything. If you do that and have good relationships, there’s no door that won’t open for you,” King emphasizes. “Keep working hard to present yourself and your skill set, and people will notice your work.”

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