Letitia James is the 67th Attorney General of New York, the chief legal officer for a state of 19 million people and an office that has become one of the most consequential state AG operations in the country over the last six years. She is the first Black woman elected to statewide office in New York, the first African American to serve as New York Attorney General, and the first woman elected to that position. She took office in January 2019, was re-elected in 2022, and is in her second term running through January 2027. This guide walks through how James built her career across three decades of New York public service, the litigation portfolio she has built as AG, and what her tenure has produced for New York residents and for the national role of state AG offices.

From Legal Aid to the New York City Council

Letitia “Tish” James was born in Brooklyn in 1958 and raised in the Park Slope neighborhood. She graduated from Lehman College of the City University of New York and earned her law degree from Howard University School of Law, the historically Black law school in Washington, D.C. that has produced a generation of civil-rights lawyers and elected officials. She began her legal career as a public defender at the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn, representing low-income criminal defendants — a starting point that subsequent reporting on her career has consistently traced as foundational to the consumer-protection and tenant-protection priorities she has carried into elected office.

After Legal Aid, James spent several years in the New York State Attorney General’s office under Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, where she eventually headed the Brooklyn Regional Office before moving into elected politics. In 2003 she was elected to the New York City Council representing the 35th Council District in Brooklyn — winning on the Working Families Party line, the first member elected to the Council on that party’s line. She served on the Council for ten years and authored or co-sponsored the Safe Housing Act, legislation requiring repairs and improvements at the city’s worst residential buildings through enforcement against landlords whose violations had not been remediated.

Public Advocate for New York City

James was elected New York City Public Advocate in November 2013, becoming the first African American woman elected to citywide office in New York and the second woman to hold the Public Advocate position. She served from January 2014 through December 2018, handling more than 32,000 constituent complaints, intervening in housing-court and consumer-fraud matters, and authoring legislation including a New York City statute that banned employers from asking applicants about their salary history — a measure intended to address gender wage-gap perpetuation in hiring and compensation negotiation. Her record as Public Advocate is summarized on her official Attorney General biographical page.

The 2018 election and the AG office

When Eric Schneiderman resigned as New York Attorney General in May 2018, the office passed temporarily to Barbara Underwood, who declined to run for a full term. James entered the Democratic primary and on September 13, 2018 defeated Zephyr Teachout, U.S. Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, and former Hillary Clinton aide Leecia Eve. She won the November 2018 general election against Republican Keith Wofford, becoming the first Black woman elected to statewide office in New York and the first Black New York Attorney General. She was re-elected in 2022, defeating Republican attorney Michael Henry. Her electoral history on Ballotpedia documents the margins on both wins.

The New York Attorney General is the chief legal officer of New York State. The office represents the state and its agencies in civil and criminal matters, defends the constitutionality of New York statutes when challenged, prosecutes Medicaid fraud and certain organized crime, administers a Charities Bureau that regulates nonprofits operating in New York, runs an Antitrust Bureau, runs a Civil Rights Bureau, and operates an Office of Special Investigation that reviews officer-involved deaths and certain police-related civil cases. The portfolio is among the broadest of any state AG office because New York’s combination of population, financial-services industry, and city-state concentration drives consumer-protection and antitrust enforcement that other states often leave to federal regulators.

The Trump civil-fraud case and its aftermath

The single most visible action of James’s tenure has been her civil-fraud lawsuit against Donald J. Trump, the Trump Organization, and several Trump family members, filed in New York Supreme Court in September 2022. The complaint alleged that Trump and the organization had inflated asset valuations on financial statements submitted to lenders and insurers for more than a decade, in violation of New York Executive Law § 63(12). A non-jury trial in New York Supreme Court ran from October 2023 through January 2024. In February 2024, Justice Arthur Engoron issued a decision finding Trump liable and ordering approximately $355 million in disgorgement plus pre-judgment interest, eventually totaling more than $450 million. The case has been on appeal through 2025 and 2026. PBS NewsHour’s profile of James places the Trump case in the longer arc of her enforcement work against politically powerful targets.

The case generated unprecedented retaliatory federal-criminal referrals during the second Trump administration. CBS News reported that a federal grand jury declined to indict James on bank-fraud allegations in late 2025, that an earlier set of charges was dismissed in November 2025 on grounds that the interim U.S. Attorney bringing them had been appointed unlawfully, and that a Trump administration official subsequently made new criminal referrals to federal prosecutors in Miami and Chicago for what were characterized as possible homeowner’s insurance fraud allegations. The legal trajectory of those referrals remained pending as of mid-2026.

Other major actions of the James tenure

The Trump case dominated headlines, but the operational AG office continued through it. Several other actions characterize the James tenure:

  • Live Nation / Ticketmaster antitrust trial (2026). James and a coalition of 33 other state attorneys general won a jury trial against Live Nation and Ticketmaster in April 2026, with the jury finding that the defendants violated federal and state antitrust laws by eliminating competition in concert ticketing and venue contracting. The state coalition declined to join a parallel U.S. Department of Justice settlement, opting to take the case to verdict.
  • Counterterrorism funding litigation (2026). The James office secured a final victory in litigation against the Trump administration’s attempt to cut Homeland Security counterterrorism grants to New York and other states, with the federal government dropping its appeal in December 2025.
  • Mifepristone access litigation (2026). James led a coalition of 21 other state AGs and the District of Columbia in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a Fifth Circuit ruling that would restrict access to mifepristone, the medication used in the majority of U.S. medication abortions.
  • Cuomo investigation report (2021). The James office completed the investigation that documented sexual-harassment allegations against then-Governor Andrew Cuomo, leading to his resignation in August 2021.
  • NRA dissolution suit (2020). The James office filed a lawsuit seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association as a New York nonprofit, alleging years of self-dealing by senior executives. The case has proceeded through trial-level proceedings and continued through 2025 on remaining issues.
  • Opioid settlements. The office negotiated settlements with major opioid distributors and manufacturers that produced billions of dollars in funding directed to New York state and local opioid-response programs.

What this matters for New Yorkers

The New York Attorney General’s operational reach into ordinary residents’ lives runs through several specific functions: consumer-fraud enforcement against companies operating in New York, the Charities Bureau’s oversight of nonprofits soliciting in the state, civil-rights enforcement and the Office of Civil Rights complaint intake, and the Office of Special Investigation’s review of officer-involved deaths. New Yorkers who experience consumer fraud, charitable solicitation fraud, or civil-rights violations can file complaints with the office through its public-facing intake portal.

Beyond direct enforcement, the office’s litigation choices set the New York-specific posture on questions of federal-state authority that affect Medicaid, healthcare, environmental regulation, federal funding flowing through the state, and federal civil-rights enforcement. The James tenure has placed New York at the front of a multistate-coalition model that has become the dominant operating pattern for Democratic-state AGs over the last decade, paralleling the multistate-coalition pattern that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has used from the opposite end of the political spectrum.

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Bottom line

Letitia James has built one of the most active state AG offices in the country across her first eight years in office. She has used the office to pursue major civil-fraud litigation that no prior New York AG had attempted at the same scale, has built a multistate coalition model that has anchored several of the largest state AG actions in the second Trump administration, and has continued the operational consumer-protection, charities-oversight, and civil-rights enforcement that the office has historically run. Her second term runs through January 2027. Whether she pursues a third term, a federal judgeship, or a gubernatorial run will define the next phase of one of the most consequential careers in New York state government.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the current Attorney General of New York?

Letitia James has served as the New York Attorney General since January 2019. She was re-elected to a second term in November 2022. Her current term runs through January 2027.

What did Letitia James do before becoming Attorney General?

James began her career as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn, served in the New York State Attorney General’s office under Eliot Spitzer (eventually heading the Brooklyn Regional Office), served ten years on the New York City Council representing the 35th District in Brooklyn, and served as New York City Public Advocate from January 2014 through December 2018. She was the first African American woman elected to citywide office in New York.

What is the Trump civil-fraud case?

In September 2022, James’s office filed a civil lawsuit in New York Supreme Court against Donald Trump, the Trump Organization, and several Trump family members and senior executives, alleging years of inflated asset valuations on financial statements submitted to lenders and insurers in violation of New York Executive Law § 63(12). A non-jury trial ran October 2023 through January 2024. In February 2024, Justice Arthur Engoron issued a decision finding Trump liable and ordering approximately $355 million in disgorgement plus pre-judgment interest, totaling more than $450 million. The decision has been on appeal through 2025 and 2026.

What does the New York Attorney General do?

The New York AG is the chief legal officer of New York State. The office represents the state in civil and criminal litigation, defends the constitutionality of state statutes, prosecutes Medicaid fraud and certain organized crime, regulates charities through the Charities Bureau, runs an Antitrust Bureau, runs a Civil Rights Bureau, and operates an Office of Special Investigation that reviews officer-involved deaths and certain police-related civil cases. Local criminal prosecutions in New York are generally handled by elected county district attorneys, not by the AG, though the AG’s office handles certain statewide criminal matters and can be specially appointed in others.

How do I file a complaint with the New York Attorney General?

The New York Attorney General’s office accepts complaints through its public-facing intake portal at ag.ny.gov. Common categories include consumer fraud, charitable solicitation fraud, civil-rights complaints, Medicaid fraud reporting, and complaints about practices by nonprofits operating in New York. Complaints can be filed online or by mail; the website lists the specific intake form for each category.

Sources

Featured image: photo by Joshua Williams on Unsplash.

This article is general legal information about the New York Office of the Attorney General and is not legal advice. For case-specific evaluation of a New York legal matter, contact a New York-licensed attorney in the relevant practice area.