A former criminal prosecutor and civil rights attorney, Dana Nessel was sworn in as Michigan’s 54th Attorney General on January 1, 2019. Her core initiatives focus on protecting voting and civil rights, strengthening criminal prosecution and upholding victims’ rights, safeguarding consumers, advancing climate action, and promoting public health through the prevention and treatment of opioid use disorder, among other priorities. AG Nessel has a strong record of animal protection, having taken legal action on issues including puppy mill fraud, endangered species conservation, and animal abuse. AG Nessel also has been a national leader in defending state farmed animal welfare laws, such as California’s Proposition 12. In 2022, she formed a coalition of other state attorneys general to file an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, successfully arguing in favor of states’ ability to regulate commerce within their own borders. 

Prior to being elected Michigan Attorney General, Dana Nessel served as a Wayne County Prosecutor for over a decade. In her private practice, she was lead attorney for the plaintiffs in DeBoer v. Snyder, a precursor to the landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which codified same-sex marriage and granted adoption rights to same-sex couples nationwide. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University Law School, AG Nessel lives in Southeast Michigan with her wife, Alanna Maguire, and their twin sons.