Lori Swanson

She also became the first William Mitchell College of Law grad to serve as the Minnesota Attorney General, ending the University of Minnesota Law School's continued streak of holding the office since in 1929.

After being sworn in as attorney general, Swanson filed a series of lawsuits against life insurance companies that sold unsuitable annuities to senior citizens.

She argued that the insurance companies were responsible for agents who sold long-term annuities with high surrender charge to the elderly.

Lori Swanson (born December 16, 1966) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the attorney general of Minnesota from 2007 to 2019.

She was the first female attorney general elected in Minnesota.

Swanson was born on December 16, 1966.

She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her J.D. magna cum laude from William Mitchell College of Law in Saint Paul.

Swanson served as deputy attorney general during Mike Hatch's first term, and as solicitor general during his second term.

Swanson was appointed to the Consumer Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve board of governors in Washington, D.C., in 2004.

Swanson was appointed as vice-chair of the council in 2005.

She also served as chair of the Consumer Advisory Council to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., in 2006.

She was appointed chair of the council in 2006.

She was elected Minnesota Attorney General on November 7, 2006 and took office on January 2, 2007, becoming the first woman to serve as Minnesota's attorney general.

In 2007 and 2008, she sued several insurers, including Allianz Life Insurance Company, American Equity Life Insurance Company, Midland National Life Insurance company, AmeriUs Life Insurance Company and American Investors Life Insurance.

The lawsuits resulted in settlements that provided for industry-wide reforms and hundreds of millions of dollars in refund offers to senior citizens.

Swanson testified in the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging about the need for insurance companies to require sales agents to ensure the suitability of the sale of an insurance product.

As Swanson took office, the country was beginning to face a housing crisis and eventual recession spurred by predatory subprime mortgage lending.

Before she took office, Swanson announced a predatory lending working group to make recommendations to legislators for reforming abuses in the mortgage industry.

The group made a number of recommendations, such as the elimination of “no doc” mortgages in which a loan is issued without proof of a borrower's ability to repay it.

Many of these proposals were enacted into law, and the Martin Luther King-inspired Drum Major Institute called them one of the 10 best public policy proposals in the United States.

In 2007, a group of attorneys working for Swanson attempted to form a union with the help of AFSCME council 5 to improve their working conditions and provide some protection from being asked to violate the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct by bringing baseless lawsuits against individuals and organizations to suit Swanson's political aspirations.

On March 7, 2008, MinnPost reported on the internal fight for unionization that was still ongoing, including reports that attorneys who did not support Swanson politically were given punishment assignments or were removed from cases.

Later on that spring, in May 2008, an attorney who publicly advocated for the formation of a union, Amy Lawler, was fired by Swanson.

A New York Times editorial heralded the law in 2009.

Swanson was asked to testify before the United States Congress and the Federal Reserve Board of Governors about the Minnesota reforms.

During the housing crisis, Swanson filed 19 lawsuits against mortgage foreclosure companies that defrauded homeowners by charging thousands of dollars and falsely promising to help save their homes from foreclosure.

Swanson entered into settlements with a number of national banks for their role in the foreclosure crisis, giving the money back to homeowners who were victimized by the banks’ conduct.

In 2009, Swanson filed a lawsuit against National Arbitration Forum (NAF), at that time the largest consumer arbitration organization in the country.

NAF had been criticized by consumer advocacy groups, U.S. Senators, and Public Citizen for bias against consumers.

Swanson alleged that NAF was owned by a group of equity funds that also were simultaneously affiliated with a national debt collection agency, Axiant, and the administration of the largest collection law firm at the time, Mann Brakken.

In July 2009 NAF signed a consent order with Swanson agreeing to stop arbitrating consumer claims.

Shortly thereafter, Axiant and Mann Bracken went out of business.

Swanson was re-elected on November 2, 2010, defeating Republican challenger Chris Barden.

In January 2012, Swanson sued Accretive Health, a billing and revenue consulting firm hired by two Twin Cities hospitals, for losing patient data on a lap top.

At the time, Accretive was a multibillion-dollar publicly-traded company.

The lawsuit expanded when Swanson discovered that, unbeknownst to the patients, the data was being used to calculate the “frailty condition” of patients, complete with a “complexity score” of the physical condition of patients.

In April 2012, the lawsuit again expanded when Swanson alleged that Accretive embedded bill collectors in the emergency rooms of hospitals and demanded payment by patients before and during treatment.

As of April 2017, three months into Swanson's tenure, at least 30 members of Swanson's staff had left the office.

In 2018, she ran for Governor of Minnesota with running mate U.S. Representative Rick Nolan finishing in third place in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor primary.

After leaving public office, Swanson founded a law firm with Mike Hatch, her predecessor as attorney general.