Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan will receive the 2016 Distinguished Award for Excellence from the Illinois Bar Foundation (IBF) at the organization’s 18th annual black-tie Gala on Friday evening, October 14, at the Four Seasons Hotel, 120 E. Delaware Place, Chicago. The event begins with a cocktail reception at 6:30, followed by dinner and dancing. The IBF is the charitable arm of the Illinois State Bar Association.

Attorney General Madigan became the first woman elected to serve as the Illinois Attorney General and one of only a handful of female Attorneys General in the country when she was elected to the position in 2002. In 2014, she was elected to her fourth term and is now the senior-most female Attorney General.

Attorney General Madigan has brought a high level of activism to the Office of Illinois Attorney General. She has demonstrated principled leadership, putting policy before politics and focusing her work as the state’s top legal advocate on protecting the people and communities of Illinois.

Under her leadership, the Consumer Protection Division has established a national reputation for aggressively safeguarding consumers from financial fraud and unsafe products. She has dedicated the energy and resources of her office to protecting children and women from the dangers of sexual predators and established herself as a leader in the public’s fight for open and accessible government. Additionally, she has been widely praised for implementing a series of proactive law enforcement strategies to protect seniors in nursing homes and to combat the spread of methamphetamine and synthetic drugs throughout the state.

In the national arena, Attorney General Madigan is a respected advocate, regularly testifying before Congress and federal commissions charged with strengthening consumer financial protections, due in part to her aggressive crackdown on the country’s largest subprime lenders and her advocacy for reining in abuse and retaining state enforcement powers.

Before her election as Attorney General, Madigan served in the Illinois Senate and worked as a litigator for a Chicago law firm. Prior to becoming an attorney, she was a teacher and community advocate, developing after-school programs to help keep kids away from drugs and gangs.

Madigan earned her bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and her J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She and her husband, Pat Byrnes, have two daughters.

For more information, or to purchase tickets, call (312) 726-6072. Information also is available at www.illinoisbarfoundation.org.