Dana Nessel

Dana Michelle Nessel (born April 19, 1969) is an American politician and lawyer, serving as the 54th Attorney General of Michigan since January 2019. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Nessel is the second openly lesbian woman elected attorney general of a state in the United States (after Maura Healey), and the first openly LGBT person elected to statewide office in Michigan. She is also the first Jewish person elected Attorney General of Michigan.

In 2014, Nessel successfully argued for the plaintiffs in DeBoer v. Snyder, which challenged Michigan's ban on the statewide legal recognition of same-sex marriage; the case was eventually combined with others and appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States as Obergefell v. Hodges, which led to the nationwide legal recognition of same-sex marriage.

Nessel was born in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, the daughter of Martin and Sandra Nessel. She is Jewish. She was raised in West Bloomfield and graduated from West Bloomfield High School in 1987, where she played soccer and was named All-State.

Nessel received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in political science from the University of Michigan in 1990 and a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University Law School in 1994. While in college, she also performed standup comedy for several years. While in law school, she was an intern in the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.

After graduating from law school, Nessel worked as an assistant prosecutor in Wayne County for eleven years. She was the primary attorney on over 1,665 cases dealing with homicides, armed robberies, child abuse, sex crimes, carjackings and drug crimes.

In 2005, Nessel opened her legal firm, Nessel and Kessel Law, where she handled criminal defense cases, civil rights actions, family law matters, and general tort litigation. While in private practice, she successfully represented the plaintiffs in DeBoer v. Snyder (2014).

In 2018, Nessel won the Democratic Party nomination for Michigan Attorney General over former U.S. Attorney for Western Michigan Patrick Miles Jr. She then narrowly defeated Republican state House Speaker Tom Leonard and three other candidates in the general election. She succeeded term-limited Republican Bill Schuette who ran unsuccessfully for the office of Governor.