From 1975 to 1976, he was a law clerk to James Gulotta, a judge of the Louisiana 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

He entered the private practice of law in Louisiana from 1976 to 1977, and was thereafter Director of the Career Criminal Bureau for the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office from 1977 to 1980.

[2] After the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, Africk changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat.

[2] More conservative Republicans opposed Bush's selection of Africk, whose past Democratic affiliation caused them discomfiture; the publication Gambit Weekly reported that shipbuilder Donald Thomas "Boysie" Bollinger of Lockport in Lafourche Parish, a major GOP donor and the son of former party chairman Donald G. Bollinger, was the driving force behind the Africk nomination.

[3] On March 31, 2011, Africk sentenced former New Orleans police officer David Warren to 25 years and 9 months in federal prison on a federal civil rights violation of committing manslaughter with a firearm in the case of the death of Henry Glover.

However, he rejected calls for a greater reduction on the grounds that McRae was mentally disturbed at the time of the crime.

"[10]Africk served as the 54th president of the Sugar Bowl Committee in 2011–2012,[11] and oversaw the game in which the University of Michigan Wolverines defeated Virginia Tech in an overtime win.