Pennsylvania Attorney General

The **Pennsylvania attorney general** is the chief law enforcement officer of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It became an elected office in 1980. The current attorney general is Republican Dave Sunday.

### President/Council appointed attorneys general

|style="width: 2em;"|Image|style="width: 12em;"|Name|style="width: 12em;"|Took office|style="width: 12em;"|Left office|style="width: 12em;"|Comment|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||John Morris Jr.|July 16, 1777|November 1, 1777|_pro tem_||||||
||Jonathan D. Sergeant|November 1, 1777|November 23, 1780|Resigned||||||
||William Bradford|November 23, 1780|—|Re-commissioned||||||

### Attorneys general appointed between 1791 and 1920

|style="width: 2em;"|Image|style="width: 12em;"|Name|style="width: 12em;"|Took office|style="width: 12em;"|Left office|style="width: 12em;"|Comment|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||William Bradford|June 9, 1791|August 20, 1791|Resigned||||||
||Jared Ingersoll|August 20, 1791|May 10, 1800|||||||
||Joseph B. McKean|May 10, 1800|July 22, 1808|||||||
||Mahlon Dickerson|July 22, 1808|January 9, 1809|||||||
||Walter Franklin|January 9, 1809|October 2, 1810|Resigned||||||
||Joseph Reed|October 2, 1810|January 26, 1811|||||||
||Richard Rush|January 26, 1811|December 13, 1811|||||||
||Jared Ingersoll|December 13, 1811|December 21, 1816|||||||
||Amos Ellmaker|December 21, 1816|July 7, 1819|||||||
||Thomas Sergeant|July 7, 1819|December 20, 1820|||||||
||Thomas Elder|December 20, 1820|December 18, 1823|||||||
||Frederick Smith|December 18, 1823|February 5, 1828|Resigned||||||
||Calvin Blythe|February 5, 1828|May 6, 1828|||||||
||Amos Ellmaker|May 6, 1828|August 17, 1829|||||||
||Philip S. Markley|August 17, 1829|February 10, 1830|||||||
||Samuel Douglas|February 10, 1830|January 29, 1833|||||||
||Ellis Lewis|January 29, 1833|October 14, 1833|Resigned||||||
||George M. Dallas|October 14, 1833|December 1, 1835|||||||
||James Todd|December 18, 1835|April 2, 1838|Resigned||||||
||William B. Reed|April 2, 1838|January 15, 1839|||||||
||Ovid F. Johnson|January 15, 1839|January 21, 1845|||||||
||John K. Kane|January 21, 1845|June 17, 1846|Resigned||||||
||John M. Read|June 23, 1846|December 18, 1846|Resigned||||||
||Benjamin Champneys|December 18, 1846|July 31, 1848|||||||
||James Cooper|July 31, 1848|December 30, 1848|Resigned||||||
||Cornelius Darragh|January 4, 1849|April 28, 1851|||||||
||Thomas E. Franklin|April 28, 1851|January 21, 1852|||||||
||James Campbell|January 21, 1852|March 8, 1853|Resigned||||||
||Francis Wade Hughes|March 14, 1853|January 17, 1855|||||||
||Thomas E. Franklin|January 17, 1855|January 19, 1858|||||||
||John C. Knox|January 19, 1858|January 16, 1861|||||||
||Samuel A. Purviance|January 16, 1861|June 3, 1861|||||||
||William M. Meredith|June 3, 1861|January 16, 1867|||||||
||Benjamin Harris Brewster|January 16, 1867|October 25, 1869|Resigned||||||
||F. Carroll Brewster|October 26, 1869|January 22, 1873|||||||
||Samuel E. Dimmick|January 22, 1873|October 11, 1875|Died in office||||||
||George Lear|December 7, 1875|February 26, 1879|||||||
||Henry W. Palmer|February 26, 1879|January 17, 1883|||||||
||Lewis C. Cassidy|January 17, 1883|January 18, 1887|||||||
||William S. Kirkpatrick|January 18, 1887|January 10, 1891|||||||
||W. U. Hensel|January 10, 1891|January 15, 1895|||||||
||Henry Clay McCormick|January 15, 1895|January 18, 1899|||||||
||John P. Elkin|January 18, 1899|January 21, 1903|||||||
||Hampton L. Carson|January 21, 1903|January 16, 1907|||||||
||Moses Hampton Todd|January 16, 1907|January 17, 1911|||||||
||John C. Bell|January 17, 1911|January 19, 1915|||||||
||Francis Shunk Brown|January 19, 1915|January 21, 1919|||||||
||William I. Schaffer|January 21, 1919|December 14, 1920|Resigned||||||

### Attorneys general appointed between 1920 and 1980

|style="width: 2em;"|Image|style="width: 12em;"|Name|style="width: 12em;"|Took office|style="width: 12em;"|Left office|colspan=2 style="width: 12em;"|Governor(s)||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||George E. Alter|December 14, 1920|January 16, 1923|style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||William Sproul|||||
||George Washington Woodruff|January 16, 1923|January 18, 1927|style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Gifford Pinchot|||||
||Thomas J. Baldrige|January 18, 1927|January 28, 1929|rowspan="3" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan=3|John Stuchell Fisher||||
||Cyrus E. Woods|January 28, 1929|November 1, 1930||||||||
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|William A. Schnader|rowspan="2"|November 1, 1930|rowspan="2"|January 15, 1935||||
|style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Gifford Pinchot|||||||||
||Charles J. Margiotti|January 15, 1935|April 27, 1938|rowspan="2" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan="2"|George Howard Earle III||||
||Guy K. Bard|April 27, 1938|January 17, 1939||||||||
||Claude T. Reno|January 17, 1939|December 31, 1942|rowspan="2" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan="2"|Arthur James||||
||E. Russell Shockley|December 31, 1942|January 19, 1943||||||||
|rowspan="2"||rowspan="2"|James H. Duff|rowspan="2"|January 19, 1943|rowspan="2"|January 21, 1947|style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Edward Martin|
|style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||John C. Bell Jr.|||||||||
||T. McKeen Chidsey|January 21, 1947|July 5, 1950|rowspan="2" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan="2"|James H. Duff||||
|rowspan=2||rowspan=2|Charles J. Margiotti|rowspan=2|July 5, 1950|rowspan=2|March 2, 1951||||
|rowspan="3" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan=3|John S. Fine||||||||
||Robert E. Woodside|March 7, 1951|October 1, 1953||||||||
||Frank Truscott|October 13, 1953|January 18, 1955||||||||
||Herbert B. Cohen|January 18, 1955|December 17, 1956|rowspan="2" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan=2|George M. Leader||||
||Thomas D. McBride|December 17, 1956|January 20, 1959||||||||
||Anne X. Alpern|January 20, 1959|August 28, 1961|rowspan="2" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan=2|David L. Lawrence||||
||David Henry Stahl|August 29, 1961|January 15, 1963||||||||
||Walter E. Alessandroni|January 15, 1963|May 8, 1966|rowspan="2" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan=2|William Scranton||||
||Edward Friedman|May 11, 1966|January 17, 1967||||||||
||William C. Sennett|January 17, 1967|July 3, 1970|rowspan="2" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan=2|Raymond P. Shafer||||
||Fred Speaker|July 4, 1970|January 19, 1971||||||||
||J. Shane Creamer|January 25, 1971|December 31, 1972|rowspan="5" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan=5|Milton Shapp||||
||Israel Packel|January 2, 1973|December 23, 1974||||||||
||Robert P. Kane|January 6, 1975|June 7, 1978||||||||
||Gerald Gornish|June 7, 1978|December 31, 1978||||||||
||J. Justin Blewitt Jr. (acting)|January 1, 1979|January 16, 1979||||||||
||Edward G. Biester Jr.|January 16, 1979|May 19, 1980|rowspan="2" style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||rowspan="2"|Dick Thornburgh||||
||Harvey Bartle III|May 20, 1980|January 20, 1981||||||||

### Occupants of the elected Pennsylvania Attorney General office (1981–present)

|style="width: 2em;"|Image|colspan=2 style="width: 12em;"|Name|style="width: 12em;"|Took office|style="width: 12em;"|Left office|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
||style="background: ; padding: 0px; width: 6px;"||LeRoy S. Zimmerman|January 20, 1981|January 17, 1989|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Ernie Preate|January 17, 1989|June 23, 1995|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Walter W. Cohen (acting)|June 26, 1995|October 3, 1995|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Tom Corbett|October 3, 1995|January 21, 1997|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Mike Fisher|January 21, 1997|December 15, 2003|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Jerry Pappert|December 18, 2003|January 18, 2005|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Tom Corbett|January 18, 2005|January 18, 2011|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||William Ryan (acting)|January 18, 2011|May 27, 2011|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Linda Kelly|May 27, 2011|January 15, 2013|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Kathleen Kane|January 15, 2013|August 17, 2016|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Bruce Castor (acting)|August 17, 2016|August 31, 2016|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Bruce Beemer|August 31, 2016|January 17, 2017|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Josh Shapiro|January 17, 2017|January 17, 2023|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Michelle Henry|January 17, 2023|January 21, 2025|||
||style="background: ; padding: 0px;"||Dave Sunday|January 21, 2025|present|||

## Infobox (political post)

- **post**: Attorney General
- **body**: the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
- **flag**: Seal of the Attorney General of Pennsylvania.svg
- **flagcaption**: Seal of the attorney general of Pennsylvania
- **image**: Dave Sunday by Gage Skidmore (cropped).jpg
- **incumbent**: Dave Sunday (politician), Dave Sunday
- **incumbentsince**: January 21, 2025
- **termlength**: Four years
- **formation**: 1683
- **salary**: $162,000 per year
- **appointer**: Direct popular vote