Attorney General of New York

The **attorney general of New York** is the state attorney general of the U.S. state of New York and is the head of the New York Department of Law. The attorney general is also the highest-paid state attorney general in the country.

Letitia James is the current attorney general of New York, in office since January 2019.

## Duties

The attorney general advises the executive branch of state government and defends actions and proceedings in the state.

The Department of Law are divided into five major divisions such as, Appeals and Opinions, State Counsel, Criminal Justice, Economic Justice and Social Justice.

### Province of New York (1684–1776)

|rowspan="2"|Image|rowspan="2"|Attorney general|colspan="2"|Tenure|rowspan="2" width=50%|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Thomas Rudyard|1684|December 1685|Appointed by Gov. Thomas Dongan||||
||James Graham|10 December 1685|1688|Afterwards attorney general of Dominion of New England, 1688.||||
||colspan= "4"|_Member of Dominion of New England, May 1668 – April 1689_||||||
||Jacob Milborne|1690|1691|Hanged for treason, 1691||||
||Thomas Newton|1691|April 1691|Removed from office by governor||||
||George Farewell|1691|1692|(Acting) Removed from office by governor||||
||James Graham|June 1692|21 January 1701|Died 27 January 1701||||
||Sampson Shelton Broughton|5 April 1701||Died February 1705||||
||John Rayner|12 July 1708||Absent in England. Died 1719.||||
||May Bickley|1708|1712|Acting AG in Rayner's absence. Removed from office by governor, 1712||||
||David Jamison|10 June 1712|1721|Acting AG in Rayner's absence, 1712–20||||
||James Alexander|1721|1723|||||
||Richard Bradley|1723|28 August 1752|||||
||William Smith the elder|August 1752||||||
||William Kempe|November 1752|19 July 1759|||||
||John Tabor Kempe|1759||||||
||James Duane|1767||Acting AG in Kempe's absence.||||

### New York State (1777–present)

|width="60px"|Image|width="20%"|Attorney general|width="30%"|Tenure|Party|Notes|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||Egbert Benson|May 8, 1777 – May 14, 1788||||||
||Richard Varick|May 14, 1788 – September 29, 1789|Federalist|||||
||Aaron Burr|September 29, 1789 – November 8, 1791|Dem.-Rep.|Third vice president of the United States||||
||Morgan Lewis|November 8, 1791 – December 24, 1792|Dem.-Rep.|||||
||Nathaniel Lawrence|December 24, 1792 – November 13, 1795|Dem.-Rep.|||||
||Josiah Ogden Hoffman|November 13, 1795 – February 3, 1802|Federalist|||||
||Ambrose Spencer|February 3, 1802 – February 3, 1804|Dem.-Rep.|||||
||John Woodworth|February 3, 1804 – March 18, 1808|Dem.-Rep.|||||
||Matthias B. Hildreth|March 18, 1808 – February 2, 1810|Dem.-Rep.|||||
||Abraham Van Vechten|February 2, 1810 – February 1, 1811|Federalist|||||
||Matthias B. Hildreth|February 1, 1811 – July 11, 1812|Dem.-Rep.|Died in office||||
||Thomas Addis Emmet|August 12, 1812 – February 13, 1813|Dem.-Rep.|||||
||Abraham Van Vechten|February 13, 1813 – February 17, 1815|Federalist|||||
||Martin Van Buren|February 17, 1815 – July 8, 1819|Dem.-Rep.|Eighth president of the United States||||
||Thomas Jackson Oakley|July 8, 1819 – February 12, 1821|Federalist|||||
||Samuel A. Talcott|February 12, 1821 – January 27, 1829|Dem.-Rep.|First appointed, in 1823 elected by State Legislature, resigned shortly before the end of his second term||||
||Greene C. Bronson|January 27, 1829 – January 12, 1836|Democratic|Elected a justice of the State Supreme Court during his third term||||
||Samuel Beardsley|January 12, 1836 – February 4, 1839|Democratic|||||
||Willis Hall|February 4, 1839 – February 7, 1842|Whig|||||
||George P. Barker|February 7, 1842 – February 3, 1845|Democratic|||||
||John Van Buren|February 3, 1845 – January 1, 1848|Democratic|Legislated out of office by the Constitution of 1846||||
||Ambrose L. Jordan|January 1, 1848 – December 31, 1849|Whig|First attorney general elected by general ballot||||
||Levi S. Chatfield|January 1, 1850 – November 23, 1853|Democratic|Resigned shortly before the end of his second term||||
||Gardner Stow|December 8, 1853 – December 31, 1853|Democratic|Appointed to fill the unexpired term||||
||Ogden Hoffman|January 1, 1854 – December 31, 1855|Whig|||||
||Stephen B. Cushing|January 1, 1856 – December 31, 1857|American|||||
||Lyman Tremain|January 1, 1858 – December 31, 1859|Democratic|||||
||Charles G. Myers|January 1, 1860 – December 31, 1861|Republican|||||
||Daniel S. Dickinson|January 1, 1862 – December 31, 1863|Union|||||
||John Cochrane|January 1, 1864 – December 31, 1865|Union|||||
||John H. Martindale|January 1, 1866 – December 31, 1867|Republican|||||
||Marshall B. Champlain|January 1, 1868 – December 31, 1871|Democratic|Two terms||||
||Francis C. Barlow|January 1, 1872 – December 31, 1873|Republican|||||
||Daniel Pratt|January 1, 1874 – December 31, 1875|Democratic|||||
||Charles S. Fairchild|January 1, 1876 – December 31, 1877|Democratic|||||
||Augustus Schoonmaker Jr.|January 1, 1878 – December 31, 1879|Democratic|||||
||Hamilton Ward Sr.|January 1, 1880 – December 31, 1881|Republican|||||
||Leslie W. Russell|January 1, 1882 – December 31, 1883|Republican|||||
||Denis O'Brien|January 1, 1884 – December 31, 1887|Democratic|Two terms||||
||Charles F. Tabor|January 1, 1888 – December 31, 1891|Democratic|Two terms||||
||Simon W. Rosendale|January 1, 1892 – December 31, 1893|Democratic|||||
||Theodore E. Hancock|January 1, 1894 – December 31, 1898|Republican|Two terms (1894–1895; 1896–1898)||||
||John C. Davies|January 1, 1899 – December 31, 1902|Republican|Two terms||||
||John Cunneen|January 1, 1903 – December 31, 1904|Democratic|||||
||Julius M. Mayer|January 1, 1905 – December 31, 1906|Republican|||||
||William S. Jackson|January 1, 1907 – December 31, 1908|Democratic|||||
||Edward R. O'Malley|January 1, 1909 – December 31, 1910|Republican|||||
||Thomas Carmody|January 1, 1911 – September 2, 1914|Democratic|Resigned shortly before the end of his second term||||
||James A. Parsons|September 2, 1914 – December 31, 1914|Democratic|Appointed to fill the unexpired term||||
||Egburt E. Woodbury|January 1, 1915 – April 19, 1917|Republican|Resigned during his second term||||
||Merton E. Lewis|April 19, 1917 – December 31, 1918|Republican|As first deputy AG acted until being elected by the State Legislature on April 25 to fill unexpired first half of term, then re-elected in special election (Nov. 1917) for the other half (1918)||||
||Charles D. Newton|January 1, 1919 – December 31, 1922|Republican|Two terms||||
||Carl Sherman|January 1, 1923 – December 31, 1924|Democratic|Defeated for reelection in 1924||||
||Albert Ottinger|January 1, 1925 – December 31, 1928|Republican|Two terms; unsuccessful Republican nominee for governor in 1928||||
||Hamilton Ward Jr.|January 1, 1929 – December 31, 1930|Republican|Son of Hamilton Ward Sr. (AG from 1880 to 1881)||||
||John J. Bennett Jr.|January 1, 1931 – December 31, 1942|Democratic|Five terms||||
||Nathaniel L. Goldstein|January 1, 1943 – December 31, 1954|Republican|Three terms||||
||Jacob K. Javits|January 1, 1955 – January 9, 1957|Republican|Resigned having been elected U.S. senator||||
||Louis J. Lefkowitz|January 9, 1957 – December 31, 1978|Republican|Re-elected by the State Legislature to fill the unexpired term, then re-elected to five more terms, longest-serving attorney general (8 days short of 22 years)||||
||Robert Abrams|January 1, 1979 – December 31, 1993|Democratic|Elected to four terms, resigning a year before the end of his fourth term||||
||G. Oliver Koppell|January 1, 1994 – December 31, 1994|Democratic|Elected by the State Legislature to fill unexpired term||||
||Dennis Vacco|January 1, 1995 – December 31, 1998|Republican|Defeated for reelection in 1998. Joined Waste Management, Inc. as vice president for New York government affairs. Became a partner in Buffalo law firm, Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman.||||
||Eliot Spitzer|January 1, 1999 – December 31, 2006|Democratic|Two terms, then elected governor||||
||Andrew Cuomo|January 1, 2007 – December 31, 2010|Democratic|One term, then elected governor||||
||Eric Schneiderman|January 1, 2011 – May 8, 2018|Democratic|Resigned during his second term||||
||Barbara D. Underwood|May 8, 2018 – December 31, 2018|Democratic|Served as acting attorney general from May 8 to May 22, when she was confirmed by the New York State Legislature.||||
||Letitia "Tish" James|January 1, 2019 – present|Democratic|||||

## Infobox (official post)

- **post**: Attorney General
- **body**: New York
- **insignia**: Seal of New York (state).svg
- **insigniasize**: 100px
- **flag**: Flag of New York.svg
- **flagsize**: 130px
- **flagcaption**: Flag of the State of New York
- **image**: Letitia James Interview Feb 2020.png
- **incumbent**: Letitia James
- **incumbentsince**: January 1, 2019
- **constituting instrument**: New York Constitution of 1777
- **formation**: 1777
- **first**: Egbert Benson
- **salary**: $210,000 (2019)
- **insigniacaption**: Seal of the State of New York
- **department**: New York Department of Law
- **termlength**: Four years, no term limit
- **style**: Madam Attorney General
The Honorable