Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison ’90 to Be Law School's Commencement Speaker

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison ’90 will be the keynote speaker at the Law School’s 135^th commencement exercises on Saturday, May 13.

Ellison was elected attorney general in 2018 and reelected in 2022. As the People’s Lawyer, his job is to help Minnesotans afford their lives and live with dignity, safety, and respect.

From 2007 to 2019, Ellison represented Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he championed consumer, worker, environmental, and civil- and human-rights protections for Minnesotans. He served for 12 years on the House Financial Services Committee, where he helped oversee the financial services industry, the housing industry, and Wall Street, among others. Among his legislative accomplishments are passing provisions to protect credit-card holders from abusive practices and protect the rights of renters and tenants. While in Congress, he founded the Congressional Antitrust Caucus and the Congressional Consumer Justice Caucus.

Before being elected to Congress, Ellison served in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Prior to entering elective office, he spent 16 years as an attorney specializing in civil-rights and defense law, including five years as executive director of the Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis. He was also a noted community activist.

At the Law School, Ellison serves as adjunct faculty, teaching “Public Interest Advocacy and State Attorney General” each semester. He is the first African American and the first Muslim American to be elected to statewide office in Minnesota.

The Law School’s commencement will be held at Northrop. (Details available here.)