Attorney General Andrea Campbell ’00

Andrea Joy Campbell is the forty–fifth Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She is the first Black woman to hold the office and as a member of the Class of 2000, joins Robert Treat Paine, James T. Austin, Perez Morton, and Paul Dever on the list of BLS alumni to hold the position. Campbell had a tumultuous childhood that saw the incarceration of her father, her mother’s death at a young age, and time spent in the foster care system. Her brothers both spent time in the prison and her twin brother died while in custody of the Department of Corrections. She is very open about her experiences and the fact that they differ from the experiences of many others in politics. She attended Princeton and UCLA Law School. 

Campbell has worked for the EDLaw Project, which tries to break the school-to-prison pipeline, and Proskauer LLP, a firm that deals with employment. Eventually, she became the General Counsel of the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission and then worked as an advisor to Deval Patrick while he was Governor. Her time as an elected official began in 2015 when she was elected to be the City Councilor for District Four of Boston and was City Council President in 2018.  Campbell was also the first Black woman to hold this position. After an unsuccessful mayoral campaign, Campbell ran for Attorney General in 2022 and assumed the position in 2023. As Attorney General, she has instituted several reforms within the office and built new divisions. She has also made headlines by dealing with the town of Milton’s MBTA Zoning Lawsuit and settlements with Publicis Health and Uber/Lyft. 

Although I did not get to know her personally over my summer, in the few interactions we had, I was struck by her appreciation for those working for her. Even when talking within her own office, she makes it clear that the successes of the Attorney General belong to the whole office and not solely her.