Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to Address 2008 IIT Chicago-Kent Graduates

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan will deliver the commencement address at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Chicago-Kent College of Law’s 2008 ceremonies on Sunday, May 18, at 2 p.m. Commencement will be held in the Arie Crown Theatre at McCormick Place’s Lakeside Center, 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, in Chicago. More than 300 students are expected to receive Juris Doctor degrees, and approximately 75 Master of Laws degrees will be conferred.

In November 2002, Attorney General Madigan became the first woman elected to serve as the Illinois Attorney General, and one of only a handful of female state attorneys general in the country. Madigan was elected to a second term in November 2006. Before her election as attorney general, Madigan served in the Illinois Senate from 1998 to 2002. She has also worked as a litigator for a Chicago law firm.

In 2004, Madigan became the first Illinois Attorney General in more than 25 years to argue a case personally before the United States Supreme Court. She successfully argued Illinois v. Caballes, in which the justices upheld the ability of police officers to use specially trained dogs to detect the presence of illegal drugs during traffic stops.

As attorney general, Madigan’s key initiatives since taking office include safeguarding communities from sex offenders and online predators, consumer protection, environmental protection, and more open and accessible government.

Madigan was the recipient of a 2006 Aspen Institute Rodel Fellowship awarded to the nation’s most outstanding young political leaders and the 2005 John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award. Her public service work has been recognized by the Illinois Center for Violence Prevention, American Cancer Society, Illinois Drug Enforcement Officers Association, Equality Illinois, American Association of Retired Persons, Society of Professional Journalists, Illinois Equal Justice Foundation, Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and Illinois Environmental Council.

A native Chicagoan, Madigan earned her B.A. from Georgetown University and her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. Prior to becoming an attorney, Madigan was a teacher and community advocate, developing after-school programs to help keep children involved in education and away from drugs and gangs. She also volunteered as a high school teacher in South Africa during that country’s apartheid era.

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 6,700 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT's interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment.