Author Profile

Attorney General Kwame Raoul was sworn in as the 42nd Attorney General of Illinois in January 2019. Born in Chicago to Haitian immigrants, Kwame brings a lifetime of legal experience and public service to his work as the people’s champion. Kwame’s fellow Democratic Attorneys General elected him Co-Chair of their coalition in November of 2024 to lead their coordinated effort against President Trump’s unconstitutional actions. In his leadership in Illinois and nationwide, Kwame defends and upholds the law, protects access to health care and reproductive rights, and fights for equal rights.

As the state’s chief legal and law enforcement officer, Kwame works in a bipartisan manner with prosecutors and police chiefs across Illinois to fight crime and develop criminal justice policy. Kwame partners with federal and local law enforcement to prosecute murder, violent crimes, crimes of sexual violence, and gun trafficking. Kwame was honored as Public Official of the Year by the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police for his leadership on criminal justice matters.

Kwame created the state’s first Organized Retail Crime Task Force with law enforcement partners to investigate smash-and-grab crimes. Criminal networks tied to drug trafficking, human trafficking, and other illegal activities are creating these organized retail crime rings that Kwame has cracked down on. His task force has recovered millions of dollars worth of stolen merchandise. 

To fight the prevalence of gun violence, Kwame works in partnership with the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center to conduct trainings to prevent mass shooting threats in schools, places of worship, and other public places. Kwame also sued to revoke the license of a rogue gun manufacturer that produced cheap guns criminals use in carjackings and other crimes. Kwame is committed to reducing the number of illegal guns on our streets as he created a state-of-the-art gun tracing database, Crime Gun Connect, for Illinois law enforcement. Kwame’s dedication to reducing gun violence is unwavering as he continues to defend Illinois’ assault weapons ban in the courts.

Kwame understands the importance of protecting our children and leads the Illinois Crimes Against Children Task Force which investigates and prosecutes online predators for preying on children in communities across the state. He directed an investigation of Illinois Catholic clergies that revealed nearly 2,000 cases of sexual assault against children and released a comprehensive report that unveiled decades-long coverups and repeated abuses.

Kwame also works to reduce the long-lasting effects of violence and provide support to survivors and their families through his Crime Victim Services Division and backs Illinois providers that offer trauma-informed services. He has advanced Illinois’ Crime Victims Compensation Program and increased funding for the Violent Crime Victims Assistance Program which provides financial support to victims and witnesses of violent crime.

Access to health care is particularly important for Kwame as Attorney General and for his own personal health journey. As a cancer survivor, Kwame benefitted from early detection and excellent medical care, solidifying his commitment to protect and defend everyone’s ability to access health care to build a healthy future.

The right to reproductive freedom is part of that critical work. When Roe v. Wade was overturned, Kwame traveled to Washington, D.C. to plan a renewed fight for reproductive rights with then-Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic attorneys general. Since then, Kwame has led the Illinois legislature to enact laws that expand and protect comprehensive access to reproductive health care, including emergency and medication abortion, miscarriage management, and fertility treatment. Planned Parenthood of Illinois honored Kwame with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his critical work to protect access to reproductive health care.

As Kwame leads the Democratic state attorneys general across the country, he works to protect voting rights. He has urged the Supreme Court to reaffirm states’ rights to redraw their legislative maps to ensure their citizens have equal voting opportunities. During the November 2024 Presidential election, Kwame sent teams of lawyers to monitor Illinois polls and ensure that folks could exercise their right to vote.

Kwame also prioritizes protecting the rights of workers in Illinois, creating a Worker Protection Unit in his office that enforces violations of worker protection laws. Kwame leads a statewide task force to prevent discrimination, wage theft, misclassification, and other unlawful practices affecting Illinois workers. In his tenure as Attorney General, Kwame secured millions of dollars in owed wages for Illinois workers. He landed a $25 million settlement with GrubHub following an investigation into their alleged deceptive business practices that harmed customers, delivery drivers, and restaurants–and that was just one example.

To combat the epidemic of prescription drug addiction in our country, Kwame has filed lawsuits to hold drug manufacturers accountable for peddling opioids, which resulted in millions of dollars in relief for Illinois communities that have felt the devastating impacts of opioid addiction. Kwame secured a $7.4 billion settlement from his lawsuit against Purdue Pharma, holding the company accountable and preserving justice on behalf of the families harmed by the opioid crisis.

Before his election to Attorney General in November 2018, Kwame was a state senator for 14 years and a leading voice for equal rights and a woman’s right to choose. Kwame sponsored landmark legislation to abolish the death penalty, require mandatory background checks on private transfers of guns, reform workers’ compensation, and enact some of the strongest voting rights protections in the nation.

Kwame began his legal career as a prosecutor in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office, previously served as a senior staff attorney for the City Colleges of Chicago, and was a partner at two national law firms.

Kwame is a graduate of DePaul University and earned his law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law. He is married to Dr. Lisa Moore, and the couple are the parents of Che, Mizan, John, and Madison.