Carolyn Shapiro

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has appointed IIT Chicago-Kent Professor Carolyn Shapiro to serve as the new Solicitor General in the Office of the Attorney General. She will succeed Michael Scodro, who will be joining the Chicago office of Jenner & Block as a partner in the firm’s Appellate and Supreme Court Practice.

“I am very pleased to announce Carolyn Shapiro as our new Solicitor General,” Madigan said. “Carolyn brings a tremendous depth of knowledge of the law and exceptional experience as a U.S. Supreme Court and Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals law clerk. The people of the state of Illinois will benefit from her expertise.”

Shapiro joins Madigan’s office from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, where she has served on the faculty since 2003. Shapiro is the founding director of the law school’s Institute on the Supreme Court of the United States (ISCOTUS). Her scholarship is largely focused on the Supreme Court, its relationship to other courts, and its role in our constitutional democracy, as well as on employment law.

“Although we will miss her, Illinois is fortunate to have someone with her intelligence and integrity to serve as Solicitor General,” said IIT Chicago-Kent Dean Harold J. Krent.

Prior to joining IIT Chicago-Kent, Shapiro practiced as an associate at Miner, Barnhill & Galland in civil rights practice, and she was a Skadden Fellow with the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law.

After receiving her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, Shapiro clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer and U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard A. Posner. She earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Chicago and a master’s degree at the university’s Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies.

As Solicitor General, Shapiro will oversee more than 40 attorneys in Madigan’s Appellate Division who work on behalf of the state, its officers and agencies. The Solicitor General oversees attorneys’ work in the U.S. Supreme Court, Illinois Supreme Court, and the federal and state appellate courts. The Solicitor General also serves as a legal adviser to the Attorney General.