Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul brings a lifetime of legal experience and advocacy to the office. Attorney General Raoul launched his legal career as a Cook County juvenile prosecutor. Thereafter, he successively opened a general law practice, served as a higher education attorney for City Colleges of Chicago, and became a partner at two national corporate law firms.
In 2004, Raoul was appointed to replace Barack Obama in the Illinois State Senate, where he represented the 13th Legislative District for 14 years. In 2019, Raoul was sworn in as Illinois’ 42nd Attorney General. He took the oath to serve a second term as the state’s chief legal officer in January 2023.
Attorney General Raoul has been at the forefront of collaborations with other Attorneys General to investigate online platforms, such as Meta, for their roles in addicting youth to social media and exposing them to harmful content. To countervail the youth vaping epidemic, in 2019, Illinois was among the first states in the nation to sue Juul Labs Inc., alleging the company marketed its harmful nicotine products to minors. His office co-led multistate negotiations resulting in a $462 million settlement and critical injunctive relief to prevent Juul from marketing and selling its products to youth. Attorney General Raoul has also collaborated with the Motion Picture Association to help identify industry-wide best practices that protect young viewers from tobacco imagery.
In an effort to curb gun violence among youth, in 2019, Attorney General Raoul initiated a partnership with the U.S. Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) to provide trainings to Illinois educators and other school staff on how to intervene with individuals who exhibit concerning or threatening behaviors. Attorney General Raoul also initiated and continues to uphold the Firearm Industry Accountability Act (FIRA), which clarifies that firearm industry businesses in Illinois can be subject to civil liability if they engage in unlawful business and marketing practices. This legislation reminds gun industry members that they cannot market firearms to minors for unlawful purposes.
Finally, the Illinois Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ILAG ICAC) is one of 61 coordinated task forces across the nation dedicated to investigating and prosecuting online child exploitation.