Andrea Joy Campbell, the 45th Attorney General of Massachusetts, is the first Black woman to hold the office and the second Black person to do so since Edward Brooke. Sworn in on January 18, 2023, she came to the office with a less conventional path than most state attorneys general — Princeton undergraduate, UCLA School of Law, a stop in the public-interest legal sector at a Roxbury education-rights nonprofit, two years at the global firm Proskauer Rose, and three terms on the Boston City Council, including a term as the first African-American woman to serve as Council President. Her career-defining narrative is also unusually personal: Campbell has spoken publicly about losing both birth parents young, growing up in foster care and with relatives, and losing her twin brother Andre while he was in state custody — a set of experiences that visibly shape the priorities she has brought to the AG’s office.

Early life, family, and education

Andrea Joy Campbell was born June 11, 1982 in Boston, Massachusetts, one of three siblings — including her twin brother Andre and an older brother Alvin Jr. Her birth father, Alvin Campbell Sr., was sentenced to an eight-year prison term shortly after her birth; her birth mother, Denise, died in a car accident when Andrea was eight months old. Campbell and her brothers spent time in foster care and with relatives. Her aunt and uncle, Lois and Ron Savage, played a central role in raising her, and Campbell has consistently described them as her parents in public remarks.

She graduated from Boston Latin School, the public exam school in Boston, before earning her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University in 2004. She earned her Juris Doctor at the UCLA School of Law, choosing the West Coast institution after extensive community involvement in Boston throughout her undergraduate years.

Early legal career

After law school Campbell took an unconventional first-job route for an Ivy League / UCLA Law graduate, joining EdLaw, a Roxbury-based education-rights nonprofit, as a staff attorney providing free legal services to families navigating the Boston Public Schools system. Education-equity work has remained a thread through her subsequent public-policy career.

She then spent two years at Proskauer Rose, the global law firm, advising employers in Boston and New York on labor and employment law and labor-relations matters. After Proskauer she served briefly as interim general counsel at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and then as Deputy Legal Counsel in the Office of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick — her first state-government role and the experience that pulled her toward public service full time.

Boston City Council, 2016–2022

In the 2015 Boston city council election Campbell defeated sixteen-term incumbent Charles Yancey with 61% of the vote, becoming the first woman to represent the council’s 4th district, which covers parts of Mattapan, Dorchester, Roslindale, and Jamaica Plain. She was reelected unopposed in 2017 and 2019.

On January 1, 2018 Campbell was elected Council President, becoming the first African-American woman to hold that position in Boston. Her two-year tenure as President was marked by criminal-justice reform initiatives and a focus on city-government oversight: a 2016 ordinance (with then-Councilor and now-Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley) banning employer use of credit scores in hiring decisions; a 2019 proposal for a city inspector general; a 2019 vacancy tax on abandoned properties; a 2020 proposal for a police oversight board; and a 2021 ordinance limiting police use of crowd-control weapons.

2021 mayoral campaign

Campbell announced her candidacy for Mayor of Boston on September 24, 2020, from her childhood home in Roxbury. Her campaign platform centered on reallocating 10% of the Boston Police Department’s budget — approximately $50 million — to public health, economic justice, and youth programs, and removing 125 school resource officers from Boston Public Schools. She finished third in the September 2021 nonpartisan preliminary election in a field that included future mayor Michelle Wu, former interim mayor Kim Janey, Annissa Essaibi George, and John Barros, and did not advance to the general election.

Election as Massachusetts Attorney General

Campbell announced her candidacy for Attorney General on February 2, 2022, after incumbent Maura Healey announced her run for governor. Campbell was the first Black woman to qualify for ballot access for statewide office in Massachusetts. She won the Democratic primary with 50.10% of the vote and the November 2022 general election with 62.85% against Republican James R. McMahon III. She was sworn in on January 18, 2023.

Notable initiatives and cases as Attorney General

New AGO units

One of Campbell’s first actions as AG was reorganizing the office to create new specialty units — a Reproductive Justice Unit, Elder Justice Unit, Gun Violence Prevention Unit, and a Police Accountability Unit. In March 2024 she announced a Housing Affordability Unit focused on tenant protections, code enforcement, and unfair rental-market practices.

The MBTA Communities zoning enforcement action

In February 2024 Campbell filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the Town of Milton, Massachusetts, seeking to enforce the state’s MBTA Communities Act, which requires municipalities served by MBTA transit to allow multifamily housing as of right in at least one zoning district. The case became a leading test of how the state intends to enforce the housing-supply legislation, and the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ultimately ruled in early 2025 that the law was enforceable.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore-style clergy work

Campbell’s office continued the Massachusetts AGO’s longstanding work investigating clergy abuse, building on the office’s earlier work on Catholic Church accountability — a portfolio that has been a defining feature of the Massachusetts office since the early 2000s.

Boston Police gang-unit investigation

In May 2023 Campbell announced an investigation into allegations of racial bias within the Boston Police Department gang unit, an inquiry that emerged from longstanding civil-liberties concerns about how individuals are added to the city’s gang database.

Opioid settlements and consumer protection

In February 2024 Campbell announced an $8 million settlement with Publicis Health, the marketing firm that had advised opioid manufacturers including Purdue Pharma. She has also issued proposed regulations prohibiting hidden “junk fees” in consumer contracts and launched a Youth Sports Betting Safety Coalition with the NCAA in March 2024.

Civil-rights enforcement

In December 2023 Campbell’s office filed a civil-rights lawsuit against the white-nationalist group “National Socialist Club 131,” a Massachusetts-based organization that had engaged in coordinated harassment of Black, Jewish, and LGBTQ communities. The litigation drew on the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, an unusually robust state-law civil-rights tool. In April 2024 Campbell joined a multi-state lawsuit seeking to reinstate federal protections for transgender students, and in October 2023 she released, jointly with Governor Maura Healey, statewide guidelines on college admissions practices following the Supreme Court’s affirmative-action decisions.

Background context on contemporary state attorneys general roles, drawn from a 2026 forum panel.

Personal life

Campbell is married to Matthew Scheier; they have two sons. She and her family lived in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston for years and purchased a home in Dartmouth, Massachusetts in November 2024. She has spoken publicly about the death of her twin brother Andre in 2012, while he was in state custody awaiting trial — an experience she has described as a foundational influence on her interest in criminal-justice reform and the role of prosecutors and the AG’s office in oversight of state custodial systems.

Frequently asked questions

Is Andrea Campbell the first Black attorney general of Massachusetts?

She is the first Black woman to serve as Massachusetts Attorney General and the second Black person to hold the office, after Senator Edward Brooke, who served as Massachusetts AG from 1963 to 1967 before his election to the U.S. Senate.

What was Andrea Campbell’s career before becoming AG?

Campbell practiced education-rights law at the Roxbury nonprofit EdLaw, then spent two years at Proskauer Rose advising on labor and employment matters. She served briefly as interim general counsel at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and as Deputy Legal Counsel to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. From 2016 through 2022 she served on the Boston City Council, including a term as Council President from 2018 to 2020.

What did Campbell do as Boston City Council President?

Campbell served as Council President from January 2018 to January 2020, becoming the first African-American woman in that role. Her notable initiatives included an ordinance banning employer use of credit scores in hiring (with Ayanna Pressley), proposed legislation for a city inspector general and a vacancy tax on abandoned properties, and the police-oversight and crowd-control-weapons reforms that followed the 2020 protests.

What new units did Campbell create at the Massachusetts AG’s office?

Campbell established a Reproductive Justice Unit, Elder Justice Unit, Gun Violence Prevention Unit, Police Accountability Unit, and Housing Affordability Unit. The reorganization reflects her stated priorities around housing, civil rights, criminal-justice reform, and police oversight.

What is the MBTA Communities case?

The Massachusetts MBTA Communities Act requires cities and towns served by MBTA transit to allow multifamily housing as of right in at least one zoning district. In February 2024 Campbell filed suit against the Town of Milton for non-compliance, in what became the leading test of how the state intends to enforce the housing-supply legislation. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2025 that the law was enforceable.

Sources

This profile is part of TheCompleteLawyer.com’s series on the U.S. state attorneys general. Profiles are intended as a neutral biographical resource focused on professional and legal career; they are not endorsements and do not represent the views of TheCompleteLawyer.com.