Biography
ATTORNEY GENERAL KWAME RAOUL
Attorney General Kwame Raoul (Democrat) was sworn in as the 42nd Attorney General of Illinois in January 2019. Born in Chicago to Haitian immigrants, Raoul brings a lifetime of legal and policy experience, advocacy and public service to the Office of the Attorney General. As the state’s chief legal and law enforcement officer, Attorney General Raoul has demonstrated a commitment to protecting Illinois residents by leading the “people’s law firm.” He has initiated efforts to provide aid to those impacted by violence, defend the rights of workers, and protect consumers from scams, especially throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Attorney General Raoul has worked to reduce the long-lasting effects of violence and provide support to survivors of violent crime and their families.
In the first two years of his administration, Attorney General Raoul has improved Illinois’ Crime Victims Compensation Program by ensuring that the process is trauma-informed, implementing efficiencies in the application process, and increasing awareness of the program through outreach to communities across the state that are affected by violence. He also increased the funding for grants under the Violent Crime Victims Assistance Program, which provides financial support to government and nonprofit social service agencies throughout Illinois that offer services to victims and witnesses of violent crime.
In addition to these community safety efforts, Raoul also has focused on enhancing collaboration between the Attorney General’s office and federal and local law enforcement agencies. Raoul has fostered law enforcement partnerships to engage in joint enforcement efforts to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals, participate in threat assessment trainings for law enforcement and school personnel, and uphold the integrity of public offices across the state. He has also taken a leadership role in addressing the unique, multijurisdictional issues that have arisen through the COVID-19 pandemic through the creation of a Task Force made up of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to combat widespread Unemployment Insurance fraud.
Raoul also utilizes a multi-disciplinary, collaborative approach to protect children from online predators through his team of prosecutors, investigators, computer forensic analysts and internet safety specialists who make up the office’s High-Tech Crimes Bureau. He also leads the Illinois Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which engages in joint investigations and prosecutions to combat crimes that victimize children through the use of technology.
Attorney General Raoul also has prioritized partnerships with attorneys general and advocacy groups across the country to strengthen enforcement actions that have implications beyond any one state’s borders. Raoul’s office has engaged in multistate efforts to defend access to quality health care for all, to protect our natural resources from rollbacks of environmental protections, and to fight for immigration policies that do not separate children from their families.
As Attorney General, Raoul has been a leader in defending and protecting the rights of working people in Illinois. Raoul spearheaded legislation that formalized a Worker Protection Unit in the Office of the Attorney General and granted the office clear authority to enforce violations of worker protection laws. Raoul’s office responded to thousands of complaints from Illinois workers about workplace safety throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Raoul leads a statewide task force composed of state officials and prosecutors to improve collaboration between government entities as they work to prevent discrimination, wage theft, misclassification, and other unfair and unlawful practices affecting Illinois workers.
The Attorney General’s office has long been a leader in consumer protection efforts, and Attorney General Raoul has continued to champion those efforts to protect Illinois consumers. Attorney General has partnered with federal, state and local law enforcement entities in order to shut down and stop bad actors who prey on Illinois residents. He has prioritized efforts to hold accountable industries that manufacture and sell products that threaten consumers’ health and safety, such as opioids and e-cigarettes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Attorney General Raoul mobilized his office to handle calls from consumers who were concerned about price gouging and other COVID-19-related scams.
Before he was elected as Attorney General in November 2018, Attorney General Raoul spent 14 years serving as a state senator representing the 13th legislative district. As a senator, Raoul led negotiations and sponsored many significant measures that became law, including those to abolish the death penalty, to require mandatory background checks on private transfers of guns, as well as law enforcement and criminal justice reform, workers’ compensation reform, and some of the strongest voting rights protections in the nation. Attorney General Raoul began his legal career as a prosecutor in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, handling matters at the trial and appellate levels in the criminal, civil, and juvenile divisions. He subsequently served as a senior staff attorney for the City Colleges of Chicago, primarily handling labor and employment matters. Raoul was also a partner at two national law firms, serving in health care and labor and employment practice groups.
Attorney General Raoul 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 four children, Che, Mizan, John, and Madison.
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