Kwame Y. Raoul, Illinois State Senator (D-13) and a 1993 graduate of IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, will deliver the keynote address at the law school’s 2014 Commencement at 2:30 pm on Sunday, May 18, 2014. The ceremony will be held at the UIC Forum located at 725 W. Roosevelt Road (at Halsted Street).

Raoul was appointed to the Illinois State Senate on November 6, 2004, to fill the vacancy created by Barack Obama’s election to the U.S. Senate. He was elected in his own right in 2006 and was re-elected in 2010 and 2012. Raoul currently serves as chairman of the Senate Pensions and Investment Committee and the Senate Committee on Redistricting, as vice-chairman of the Senate Criminal Law Committee, and as a member of the Judiciary Financial Institutions Committee.

He has extensive experience in higher education law, labor and employment law, and litigation. Raoul has also served as senior counsel for the City Colleges of Chicago representing one of the nation’s largest community college districts, and as a prosecutor with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. He currently is a partner in the Chicago office of Quarles & Brady LLP’s Labor and Employment Law Group.

A lifelong Chicagoan, Raoul grew up in the Hyde Park/Kenwood community. He is a graduate the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools and DePaul University, in addition to IIT Chicago-Kent.

He recently was named one of IIT Chicago-Kent’s “125 Alumni of Distinction” during the law school’s 125th anniversary celebration. In 2012, Raoul was honored by IIT’s African-American Alumni Association. He has also received the Jenner & Block Award from The Center on Wrongful Convictions for his contributions to improving criminal justice.

Editors: Please note IIT Chicago-Kent’s 2014 Commencement is being held at the UIC Forum, not the UIC Pavilion.