Letitia Ann "Tish" James (born October 18, 1958) is an American lawyer and politician serving since 2019 as the 67th attorney general of New York (NYAG), having won the 2018 election to succeed Barbara Underwood. A member of the Democratic Party, James is the first African American and first woman NYAG.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, James graduated from Lehman College in the Bronx before obtaining her Juris Doctor degree at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She worked as a public defender, then on staff in the New York State Assembly, and later as a New York State Assistant Attorney General in the Brooklyn regional office. James served as a member of the New York City Council from 2004 to 2013. She represented the 35th district, which includes the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, parts of Crown Heights, Prospect Heights, and Bedford–Stuyvesant. James chaired the committees on economic development and sanitation and served on several others. From 2013 to 2018, she was the New York City Public Advocate, making her the first African American woman to be elected to and hold citywide office in New York City.

James' office filed a civil suit against Donald Trump that resulted in penalties and a fine of more than four hundred million dollars. A divided appeals court upheld Trump's liability but voided the penalty as excessive. Both sides appealed to the New York Court of Appeals. James was briefly a candidate in the 2022 New York gubernatorial election, but suspended her campaign in December 2021, opting to instead run for reelection as Attorney General.

In October 2025, James was federally indicted on one count of bank fraud and one count of making false statements to a financial institution. James pled not guilty to the charges. Her charges were dismissed by a federal judge on November 24, 2025.

Letitia Ann James was born on October 18, 1958, in Brooklyn, New York. She is one of eight children born to Nellie James (b. 1919, Martinsville, Virginia) and Robert James. She attended New York City public schools. Raised in Park Slope, Brooklyn, she attended Fort Hamilton High School in nearby Bay Ridge. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the City University of New York's Lehman College in 1981, majoring in liberal arts with an emphasis in social work.

James received her Juris Doctor degree from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. in 1987, and was admitted to practice law in New York State in 1989.

James earned a Master of Public Administration degree in 2013 from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), located in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan. She later served as Columbia University's William S. Beinecke Visiting Professor of Public Policy in the Faculty of International and Public Affairs.

James served as a public defender for the Legal Aid Society and established the Urban Network, a coalition of African-American professional organizations aimed at providing scholarships for inner city youth.