Larry Krasner, the Democratic nominee and—given our lopsided voter registration numbers— likely our next District Attorney, is not alone. Across the country, progressive prosecutors have been sweeping into office—many, like Krasner, thanks to the largesse of billionaire philanthropist George Soros.

Described by African-American lawyer Michael Coard as “the blackest white DA candidate ever,” Krasner sounds a great deal like Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, Cook County (Chicago) State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, and State Attorney Aramis Ayala in the Orlando, Florida area. Krasner wants to end mass incarceration and refuses to seek the death penalty. He has spoken out against stop-and-frisk police tactics and has advocated for sentencing reform. If elected, he also wants to revamp civil asset forfeiture and eliminate cash bail.

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What can Krasner learn from what Ayala and Mosby have gone through? David Alan Sklansky, Stanley Morrison Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and author of “The Progressive Prosecutor’s Handbook,” says Krasner will have to walk a fine line. “One of the big challenges that progressive prosecutors face is we have a range of expectations for prosecutors that are in tension with each other,” he says, noting society wants them to be both dispassionate and courtroom advocates, to both uphold the law and reflect community sentiment. Both Ayala and Mosby tried to strike that delicate balance. “Add to that the challenges of running the D.A.’s office itself, a large organization and it is difficult to turn it around. It’s like steering a large aircraft carrier.”

According to Sklansky, there are two major things a reform minded prosecutor should look out for: “You need to avoid tunnel vision,” he says. “And you need to watch out for insufficient focus. You don’t want too much attention because it blows up in your face. If you don’t pay attention to high ethical standards and financial propriety, it doesn’t matter because your leadership will be ineffective. If you don’t pay attention to the issue of disclosure of exculpatory information and particular information relating to informants, everything else you do won’t matter and you wind up with a tarnished legacy.” And, he points out, that a reform-minded DA needs to have a plan in place to credibly handle shootings by police officers and deaths at the hands of cops and corrections officers, as “handling these investigations like other investigations doesn’t work.”