Lori E. Lightfoot served as the 56th mayor of Chicago, making history as the city’s first African American female and first member of the LGBTQ+ community to ever serve as mayor of the city.  

Lightfoot is an experienced trial attorney, commercial litigator and crisis manager with nearly 40 years of practice in state, and federal courts as a civil litigator, former Assistant United States Attorney and criminal defense attorney.  Lightfoot is also a mediator with the American Arbitration Association.

Given her vast experience, Lightfoot assists clients in addressing their most challenging problems and helps them fashion solutions which speak to their many internal and external audiences.  Clients come to Lightfoot when they are looking for pragmatic solutions to complex problems.  Lightfoot’s practice includes complex commercial litigation, civil rights, and assisting a variety of small businesses in managing regulatory compliance, as well as conducting internal investigations and audits.

Lightfoot graduated from the University of Chicago Law School.  She practiced law for many years at Mayer Brown LLP in the litigation and conflict resolution group.  Lightfoot also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois (Chicago) in the criminal division where she investigated and prosecuted violent crimes, a range of financial crimes and public corruption cases.  Lightfoot is also a proud undergraduate alumnae of the University of Michigan from which she graduated with honors.

Before taking office as mayor, Lightfoot held several other leadership roles in city government both as an employee and an appointee, including the Chief Administrator of Chicago Police Department’s Office of Professional Standards, Chief of Staff and General Counsel at the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, as well as the Interim First Deputy at the Department of Procurement Services.  Lightfoot also served as the President of the Chicago Police Board and the Chief of the Police Accountability Task Force.

Since leaving office, Lightfoot has taught a graduate level leadership class at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health as a Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow.  She has contributed to the Harvard Public Health Magazine.  Lightfoot was a Fellow at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.  Since fall 2024, Lightfoot has been a co-teacher of a graduate level class on Strategic Consulting for Local Governments as a Towsley fellow at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy.  

Lightfoot is a founder of Chicago Vibrant Communities Collective, a not-for-profit focused on strengthening Chicago neighborhoods through supporting community-based, social impact organizations in historically disinvested in communities with building their internal infrastructure such as budgeting and financial, setting up data and data analytic systems, strategic planning and board development.

Lightfoot is a frequent speaker and news commentator on a range of topics including current events impacting local governments, leadership in a time of crisis, crisis communication and conflict resolution and mediation, among other topics.