Fadwa A. Hammoud is the Chief Deputy Attorney General of Michigan and the former Solicitor General of Michigan.

Early life and education

At age 11, Hammoud emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

from

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

. Hammoud graduated from

Fordson High School Fordson High School is a secondary school located in Dearborn, Michigan, United States in Greater Detroit. It was completed in 1928 on a parcel of land which was then the village of Fordson, named for Henry Ford and his son Edsel Ford. It is a p ...

. Hammoud earned a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in political science and communications from the

University of Michigan–Dearborn The University of Michigan–Dearborn (U of M Dearborn, UM–Dearborn, or UMD) is a public university in Dearborn, Michigan. It is one of the two regional universities operating under the policies of the University of Michigan Board of Regents, ...

and a J.D. from

Wayne State University Law School Wayne State University Law School (Wayne Law) is the law school of Wayne State University in Detroit. Wayne Law is located in Midtown, Detroit's Cultural Center. Founded in 1927, the law school offers juris doctor (J.D.), master of laws (LL.M.), ...

. In 2018, Hammoud was a member of the

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

's Young American Leaders Program.

Career

Hammoud has clerked for

United States District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

Judge George Steeh. Hammoud has also served as assistant prosecuting attorney for

Wayne County, Michigan Wayne County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of 2020, the United States Census placed its population at 1,793,561, making it the 19th-most populous county in the United States. The county seat is Detroit. The coun ...

and as leading prosecutting attorney for Wayne County. On November 8, 2016, Hammoud was elected as a member of Dearborn Board of Education. In January 2019, Hammoud was appointed by

Michigan Attorney General The Attorney General of the State of Michigan is the fourth-ranking official in the U.S. state of Michigan. The officeholder is elected statewide in the November general election alongside the governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, me ...

Dana Nessel Dana Michelle Nessel (born April 19, 1969) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 54th Attorney General of Michigan since January 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Nessel is the second openly lesbian woman elected at ...

as Solicitor General of Michigan. On February 18, 2019, Hammoud took the oath of office and was sworn in. Hammoud is the first Arab-American solicitor general in the United States. In March 2019, Hammoud resigned from both the Dearborn Board of Education and as a trustee as

Henry Ford College Henry Ford College (HFC) is a public community college in Dearborn, Michigan. The institution, established in 1938 by the Dearborn Fordson Public Schools Board of Education, is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. The institution was ...

. As solicitor general, Hammoud was put in charge of the Flint water crisis investigations. On April 16, 2019, Hammoud fired Todd Flood, a special prosecutor appointed by the previous administration's

attorney general In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

, claiming he failed to "fully and properly" pursue potentially important evidence in the water crisis criminal cases. Hammoud served as a Trustee and Treasurer of the Dearborn Public Schools Board of Education and the Henry Ford College Board. Former Michigan Governor

Rick Snyder Richard Dale Snyder (born August 19, 1958) is an American business executive, venture capitalist, attorney, accountant, and politician who served as the 48th governor of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Snyder previ ...

appointed Hammoud to the Commission on Middle Eastern American Affairs. She also served on the Legislative Committee for the Hispanic/Latino, Asian Pacific American and Middle Eastern American Affairs Commissions. In 2018, Hammoud was a member of the

's Young American Leaders Program. On December 7, 2022, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the appointment of Fadwa A. Hammoud as Chief Deputy Attorney General.

Notable cases

In October 2021, Hammoud became the first Muslim Arab American woman to argue a case before the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. The case in question was '' Brown v. Davenport''.

Personal life

Hammoud is

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. She is the first Muslim solicitor general in the United States.

References

Living people American Muslims County officials in Michigan Lebanese emigrants to the United States People from Dearborn, Michigan Solicitors General of Michigan University of Michigan–Dearborn alumni Wayne State University Law School alumni 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women lawyers Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-law-bio-stub