Biography

ATTORNEY GENERAL LISA MADIGAN

Often recognized for her leadership and integrity, Lisa Madigan has brought a high level of activism to the Office of Illinois Attorney General. From her first days in office, she has demonstrated principled leadership, putting policy before politics and focusing her work as the state's top legal advocate on protecting the people and communities of Illinois.

A thoughtful and determined advocate, Madigan has dedicated the energy and resources of her office to protecting women and children from the dangers of sexual predators on our streets and on the Internet. Under Madigan's stewardship, the Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General's office has established a national reputation for aggressively safeguarding consumers from fraud and unsafe products. Madigan is a leader in the public's fight for open and accessible government, and she also has been credited with restoring integrity to Illinois' gambling industry. Additionally, Madigan has been widely praised for implementing a series of proactive law enforcement strategies to combat the spread of methamphetamine throughout the state.

As part of her work to make Illinois' communities safer, Madigan is the first Illinois Attorney General in over 25 years to personally argue a case before the United States Supreme Court. In 2004, she successfully argued Illinois v. Caballes, in which the Court upheld the ability of police officers to use specially trained dogs to detect the presence of illegal drugs during traffic stops, ensuring that law enforcement may continue to use this effective strategy to fight the spread of drugs into our neighborhoods.

Attorney General Madigan has become a respected advocate in the national legal arena. Testifying before a Congressional committee on the recall of dangerous toys, she advocated for stronger consumer product safety laws and called on the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission to improve its efforts to protect the public. She also testified before Congress to urge the passage of measures to protect consumers' privacy by prohibiting the sale of cell phone records. Under her leadership, the Attorney General's office has successfully litigated three cases in the United States Supreme Court. Madigan's office also has taken the lead in presenting the views of the states in numerous amicus briefs filed in the Supreme Court, including a brief, joined by 46 other states, seeking to protect the role of state courts in enforcing critical consumer protection laws.

Madigan's proactive approach to her duties as attorney general has attracted national attention, as other states look increasingly to Illinois for innovative and bold ideas. Madigan's key initiatives since taking office include:

Protecting Communities from Sex Offenders and Online Predators: Madigan's tireless efforts to safeguard women and children from sexual predators have established Illinois as a nationally recognized leader in this area. In 2003, she began her innovative approach to protecting communities from sexual offenders by creating a statewide law enforcement team to improve the state's outmoded sex offender registry. Since that time, she has proposed successful legislation to strengthen sex offender laws and implemented a forward-thinking initiative to seek out noncompliant offenders and hold them accountable.

Aware that advancements in technology create new opportunities for sexual predators, Attorney General Madigan dedicates significant resources to high tech crime investigations targeting Internet predators and online traffickers in child pornography.
As part of these efforts, Madigan oversees the federal Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, a collaboration of law enforcement agencies across Illinois which tracks and arrests offenders. Madigan also has launched a comprehensive Internet Safety Education program to provide children, parents, and teachers with the tools necessary to avoid online dangers.

Consumer Protection: Madigan has made a priority of protecting consumers, especially seniors, from scams and deceptive practices. Her efforts to safeguard consumers include filing lawsuits to stop fraud and recover losses on behalf of harmed consumers, mediating consumer complaints, and developing informational materials and programs to educate consumers on common scams and product recalls

With the emergence of identity theft as one of the fastest-growing forms of fraud, Madigan created the statewide Identity Theft Hotline, the first hotline in the nation with a team of dedicated advocates to help victims of identity theft repair their credit and protect themselves from further harm.

Madigan also works to remove dangerous products, including toys and children's products containing high levels of lead, from the shelves of Illinois stores.

With tens of thousands of Illinoisans poised to lose their homes in the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, Attorney General Madigan has worked aggressively on several fronts to protect consumers from the devastating results of predatory lending and mortgage fraud. Her office has taken a leadership role in multistate enforcement actions against some of the nation's largest mortgage lenders, obtaining more than $600 million in damages and restitution.

Madigan also has effectively advocated for new legislation on behalf of Illinois homeowners. She played a principal role in drafting and successfully advocating passage of the High Risk Home Loan Act of 2003 and the Mortgage Rescue Fraud of 2006. As part of her comprehensive strategy to address Illinois' burgeoning home foreclosure crisis, Madigan drafted the Homeownership Preservation Act of 2007, a new law that will tighten controls on mortgage brokers and lenders and prohibit the abusive lending practices that resulted in the current foreclosure crisis. Madigan also convened a statewide Homeownership Preservation Summit, bringing together more than 100 participants from the mortgage lending industry, consumer advocacy groups, and government agencies to develop solutions for people facing foreclosure.

Safeguarding Our Environment: Attorney General Madigan has taken the lead in protecting Illinois' air, water, and land from pollution. Through numerous legal challenges, Madigan has pushed to overturn federal government efforts to weaken clean air standards that require older plants to upgrade pollution control equipment when modernizing. She has advocated on the federal level to allow states to strengthen car emission standards. Because of the number of nuclear power plants in Illinois, Madigan also is playing a lead role in the national effort to strengthen nuclear plant safety standards.

At the state level, Madigan continues to fight for a cleaner environment and to hold polluters responsible for their actions. Under her leadership, the Attorney General's office successfully litigated the largest Clean Air Act enforcement case in state history, requiring the defendant to spend more than $88 million on pollution reduction projects at its Illinois facilities. Madigan also joined forces with Chicago-area government officials and environmental activists in legal efforts to block increased water pollution into Lake Michigan from BP North American's Whiting Refinery in northwest Indiana. She is currently working with environmental organizations and the City of Chicago to protect our water and air from other proposed pollution increases.

Fighting for Open and Accessible Government: The Attorney General's commitment to making government more open and accessible to the people has resulted in several advancements, including making documents in her office available in multiple languages, creating a Spanish-language telephone hotline, and expanding the number of bilingual staff members available to serve Illinois' diverse communities.

Attorney General Madigan also created one of the first public access counselor positions in the country and has dedicated significant resources to the public access counselor's work. Under Madigan's leadership, the public access counselor and her staff work to ensure that public bodies conduct their business openly and that Illinoisans and the media have access to government documents and meetings. Madigan received the "Sunshine Award" from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2005 for her efforts to ensure that citizens, elected officials, and government bodies understand the state's sunshine laws-the Freedom of Information Act and the Open Meetings Act.

Madigan's firm belief that one person can make a difference is what led her into a career in public service and drives her work as the state's chief legal officer. Over the course of her career, many organizations have recognized and honored Madigan's accomplishments.

Attorney General Madigan was the recipient in 2005 of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, an honor presented annually to an American elected official whose contributions in office demonstrate the impact and value of public service in the spirit of President Kennedy. Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, in presenting the award, recognized Attorney General Madigan as "an inspiration to all young Americans who share my father's belief that one person can make a difference and everyone should try."

In 2006, Madigan was one of 24 elected officials chosen to receive an Aspen Institute Rodel Fellowship. The fellowship program recognizes the nation's most outstanding young political leaders and is focused on the ethics and responsibilities of public leadership and the study of democratic values.

Recently, Madigan was among some 50 emerging leaders and influential Americans chosen from across the country to participate in a national conversation titled Dialogues in Democracy: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, the culmination of MacNeil / Lehrer Productions' By the People project. The conversation explored the rights, responsibilities, and expectations of citizens and concluded with initial thoughts on the drafting of a new "Declaration of Citizenship for the 21st Century."

Madigan is proud of the recognition she has received for her public service work from such organizations as the Illinois Center for Violence Prevention, the American Cancer Society, the Illinois Drug Enforcement Officers Association, Equality Illinois, the American Association of Retired Persons, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Illinois Environmental Council.

In November 2002, Attorney General Madigan became the first female elected to serve as the Illinois Attorney General, and one of only a handful of female Attorneys General in the country. She was elected to a second term in November 2006, earning the largest vote total of any statewide candidate in that election.

Before her election as Attorney General, Madigan served in the Illinois Senate and worked as a litigator for a Chicago law firm. Prior to becoming an attorney, she was a teacher and community advocate, 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.

Madigan earned her bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She and her husband, Pat Byrnes, have two daughters.

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