Lisa Murray Madigan (born July 30, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, she served as

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 ...

of the U.S. state of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

from 2003 to 2019, being the first woman to hold that position. She is the adopted daughter of indicted politician Michael Madigan, who served as

Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives The Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives is seventh (behind the Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, and President of the Senate, respectively) in the line of succession to the office of Go ...

from 1983 to 1995 and from 1997 to 2021. On September 15, 2017, Madigan announced that she would not seek re-election as the state's attorney general in

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

, and was succeeded by State Senator

Kwame Raoul Kwame Raoul (, born September 30, 1964) is an American lawyer and politician who has been the 42nd Attorney General of Illinois since 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Raoul represented the 13th district in the Illinois Senate fr ...

Education and early career

Madigan attended

The Latin School of Chicago Latin School of Chicago is a selective private elementary, middle, and high school located in the Gold Coast neighborhood on the Near North Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. The school was founded in 1888 by Mabel Slade Vickery. Latin S ...

for her secondary education. In 1988 she received her bachelor's degree from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

. She received her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

(J.D.) from

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Cathol ...

School of Law. Prior to becoming an attorney, she worked as a teacher and community organizer, developing after-school programs to help keep kids involved in education and away from drugs and gangs. Madigan also volunteered as a high school teacher in South Africa during

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. Madigan later worked as a litigator for the Chicago law firm of Sachnoff & Weaver (now Reed Smith LLP).

Political career

In 1998, at the age of 32, Madigan ran for

Illinois state senator The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the State of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Under the I ...

for the 17th District. She handily beat her primary opponent with 66% of the vote and ran unopposed in the general election. She served in that office from 1998 through 2003. She and

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

served in the Senate together, sat next to each other, and their offices were next to each others. She sat on the judiciary committee. In 2002, Madigan ran for Attorney General of Illinois and narrowly defeated

DuPage County DuPage County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, and one of the collar counties of the Chicago metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population was 932,877, making it Illinois' second-most populous county. Its county seat is ...

State's Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a loc ...

Joe Birkett Joseph E. Birkett (born February 13, 1955) is an appellate court judge on the Illinois Appellate Court – Second District. He was appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court in December 2010, and was subsequently elected to a full term in November ...

with 50.4% of the vote. In 2004, Madigan became the first Illinois Attorney General in more than 25 years to personally argue a case before the

United States 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 ...

. She successfully argued '' Illinois v. Caballes'', where the court reaffirmed the ability of police officers to use specially trained

dogs The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it is derived from the extinct Pleistocene wolf, and the modern wolf is the dog's nearest living relative. Do ...

without a

search warrant A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to confiscate any evidence they find. In most countries, ...

probable cause In United States criminal law, probable cause is the standard by which police authorities have reason to obtain a warrant for the arrest of a suspected criminal or the issuing of a search warrant. There is no universally accepted definition o ...

to detect the presence of illegal drugs during traffic stops. Madigan was one of many Illinois politicians with strained relationships with now-convicted former Illinois Governor

Rod Blagojevich Rod Blagojevich ( , born December 10, 1956), often referred to by his nicknames "Blago" or "B-Rod", is an American former politician, political commentator, and convicted felon who served as the 40th governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009, when ...

. (See Rod Blagojevich controversies.) Her father Michael Madigan,

previously had a feud with Blagojevich, as highlighted by ''

TIME Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' magazine. On December 12, 2008, Madigan attracted national attention after filing a motion with the

Supreme Court of Illinois The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the State of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the five ap ...

to temporarily remove Governor

from office and install Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn. Although that court denied that motion without a hearing, Blagojevich was subsequently impeached and removed from office by the Illinois General Assembly, and Quinn was sworn in as governor. Blagojevich was later convicted in Federal court on 18 counts and sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment, based on the blatancy of his attempts to use his office for personal gain. Although the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court upheld his convictions, on a subsequent appeal, the 7th Circuit threw out 5 of the convictions in 2015, but Blagojevich was resentenced to the same lengthy term of imprisonment. Lisa Madigan

In 2006, Madigan won re-election with 72.4% of the vote against Tazewell County

Stewart "Stu" Umholtz. In 2008, Madigan was considered a potential candidate for

Governor of Illinois The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

or the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

. However, on July 8, 2009, Madigan announced she was running for reelection as

Illinois Attorney General The Illinois Attorney General is the highest legal officer of the state of Illinois in the United States. Originally an appointed office, it is now an office filled by statewide election. Based in Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, the attorney ...

instead of seeking higher office in 2010. Although she was also considered a possible replacement for Barack Obama's Senate seat following his victory in the 2008 presidential election, Madigan described her chances of being appointed as "less than zero." Instead, Illinois governor

appointed

Roland Burris Roland Wallace Burris (born August 3, 1937) is an American politician and attorney who is a former United States Senator from the state of Illinois and a member of the Democratic Party. In 1978, Burris was the first African American elected to ...

to fill that term, which appointment gave rise to the Blagojevich Senate appointment scandal and ultimately led to his federal convictions. Many speculated Madigan was "Senate Candidate #2" in the complaint against Blagojevich, although no wrongdoing on her part was implied. She was widely believed to have the ambition to pursue a higher political office. In 2008 ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' named her among the seventeen most likely women to become the first female President of the United States. However, on July 14, 2013, Madigan, who was widely expected to run for governor of Illinois in 2014, announced she would not run because of her father's decision to stay in his post as speaker of the Illinois House. Instead, she ran for reelection as state attorney general and won. On September 15, 2017, Madigan announced she would not seek reelection in 2018. In September 2019, Lisa Madigan joined

Kirkland & Ellis Kirkland & Ellis LLP is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1909, Kirkland & Ellis is the largest law firm in the world by revenue and the seventh-largest by number of attorneys, and was the first la ...

as litigation partner.

Awards and honors

*2005, received the

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

''New Frontier Award,'' presented to "exceptional young Americans under the age of 40 whose contributions in elective office, community service or advocacy demonstrate the impact and value of public service in the spirit of John F. Kennedy."

Personal life

Madigan was born Lisa Murray. She changed her name when she was 18 and was formally adopted in her 20s by Michael Madigan. Madigan is married to

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

Pat Byrnes Pat Byrnes is an American cartoonist best known for his work for ''The New Yorker''. He created the comic strip '' Monkeyhouse'', which ran for three years. He received the National Cartoonists Society Advertising and Illustration Award for 2001 ...

, and they have two daughters.

Electoral history

*2014 election for Attorney General :*Lisa Madigan (D) (inc.), 60% :*Paul Schimpf (R), 38% :*Ben Koyl (L), 3% *2010 election for Attorney General :*Lisa Madigan (D) (inc.), 65% :*Stephen H. Kim (R), 32% :*David Black (G), 2% :*Bill Malan (L), 2% * 2006 election for Attorney General *2002 Democratic primary election for Attorney General :*Lisa Madigan, 58% :*John Schmidt, 42% *1998 election for State Senator, 17th District :*Lisa Madigan (D), 100% :*Marc Loveless (W-I), 0% *1998 Democratic primary election for State Senator, 17th District :*Lisa Madigan, 66% :*Bruce Farley, 31%

References

External links

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan
''official government website''
Lisa Madigan for Attorney General
''official campaign website'' * Dusty Rhode
Rising star: Why Lisa Madigan leads the political pack
''

Illinois Times ''Illinois Times'' is a weekly free newspaper (distributed every Thursday) based in Springfield, Illinois. Founded in 1975, the newspaper was acquired in 1977 by Fletcher Farrar Sr., a Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and ...

'', February 5, 2009 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Madigan, Lisa 1966 births Living people 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians American expatriates in South Africa American women lawyers Georgetown University alumni Illinois Attorneys General Democratic Party Illinois state senators Latin School of Chicago alumni Lawyers from Chicago Loyola University Chicago School of Law alumni People associated with Kirkland & Ellis Politicians from Chicago Women state legislators in Illinois American adoptees