Maura Healey

Sworn in as Attorney General on January 21, 2015, Maura Healey previously helped lead the Attorney General’s Office over the last seven years as head of the Civil Rights Division and as Chief of the Public Protection and Business & Labor Bureaus.

Healey was the architect of the state’s successful challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which she argued and won twice in federal court before the Supreme Court finally struck it down. As Public Protection Bureau Chief, Healey took on and shut down predatory lenders that were wreaking havoc on Massachusetts communities and oversaw a team that has worked with homeowners to help make their loans affordable – the program has gotten banks to modify thousands of home mortgages and stop more than 900 foreclosures.

Healey helped advise and defend the Massachusetts buffer zone law which protected women from being harassed at reproductive health centers. She will enforce the Massachusetts Safe Access Law and stand against any efforts to limit women’s access to care they need. After a college student told her that Apple’s iTunes wasn’t accessible to him because he was blind, Healey secured an agreement that solved the problem and has made Apple a leader in accessible technology.

To safeguard communities, Healey will partner with federal, state and local law enforcement, using all the civil and criminal tools in the Attorney General’s authority, to address gun violence, domestic violence, and sexual assault.

Healey grew up the oldest of five brothers and sisters. Her mother worked as a school nurse, her father was a captain in the Navy and an engineer, and her stepfather taught history and coached high school sports. Her family roots are in Newburyport and along the North Shore, where her grandfathers worked on the fishing docks of Gloucester, at the post office, and in the General Electric factory. From her family, she learned values of hard work, discipline, and the importance of taking care of others.

Healey graduated from Harvard in 1992 and was captain of the women’s basketball team. She played professional basketball in Europe before returning to Massachusetts to attend Northeastern University Law School. Early in her career, Healey clerked for a federal judge and served as a litigator at the international law firm WilmerHale (formerly Hale & Dorr) and as a Special Assistant District Attorney in Middlesex County. She lives with her partner in Charlestown.