Serving Black Women Survivors

Kimberly M. Foxx served as the first Black woman to lead the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office – the second-largest prosecutor’s office in the country. Kim took office on December 1, 2016, with a vision for transforming the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office into a fairer, more forward-thinking agency focused on rebuilding public trust, promoting transparency, and being proactive in making all communities safe. She was elected to a second term in 2020.

As Cook County State’s Attorney, Kim has undertaken substantial criminal justice reforms focused on public safety and equity. She has revamped the office’s Conviction Integrity Unit, resulting in overturned convictions in over 230 cases, including the first-ever mass exoneration in Cook County for 15 men whose convictions stemmed from misconduct by a Chicago Police Officer.

Kim played a pivotal role in the crafting of the 2020 Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act to ensure that this historic legislation provides the most extensive, equitable form of conviction relief possible and requires the expungement of low-level cannabis offenses. Under her leadership, the office has expunged over 15,000 cannabis convictions. Providing this relief was not only a critical part of righting the wrongs of the failed war on drugs that disproportionately harmed communities of color; it is also a statement of her values and commitment to justice for all.

Understanding that cash bail can devastate those with limited financial resources, Kim has been a leader in bond reform, instructing prosecutors to agree to recognizance bonds where appropriate and reviewing bond decisions in cases where people are detained because they cannot afford bonds of $1,000 or less. Kim’s efforts on bail reform culminated with the passage of the Pretrial Fairness ACT in 2021, legislation that made Illinois the first state in the nation to abolish cash bail altogether. Recognizing the need for the office to focus the office’s resources on rising violent crime, she raised the threshold on felony retail theft to $1,000 in alignment with other major jurisdictions in the country, and the office no longer prosecutes misdemeanor traffic offenses for failure to pay tickets and fines.

With the goal of making Cook County the most transparent prosecutor’s office in the country, in 2018, Kim became the first and only prosecutor in the country to make felony case-level data available to the public. The open data portal provides unprecedented access and transparency into the work of a prosecutor’s office, work that is grounded in data and evidence.

A noted and national speaker on social justice issues, Kim has served on various panels, including the Illinois Judicial Council, Cook County’s COVID Reopening Task Force, and banning together with other elected prosecutors to stand against the criminalization of abortions following the overturned Roe v. Wade.

Considered a national leader in criminal justice reforms, Kim has been published in two anthologies, Progressive Prosecution: Race and Reform in Criminal Justice, Change from Within; Reimagining the 21st Century Prosecutor, where she discusses the inequities in the criminal justice system and the role that prosecutors offices can affect change and outcomes for offenders. Kim is also a sought-after keynote, speaker and lecturer, participating in panels across the country including, serving as the keynote for the University of San Francisco- USF Law Review Symposium on Race, Justice, and the Role of the Prosecutor in a Post George Floyd Era, January 2023; panelist for the DAs on the Frontier of Change: In Conversation with Melina Abdullah, May 2022; and as a panelist for the Google Zeitgeist Conference and as a guest speaker for the Makers Women’s Conference in 2018.

Kim served as an Assistant State’s Attorney for 12 years and was also a guardian ad litem, where she worked as an attorney advocating for children navigating the child welfare system. Prior to being elected State’s Attorney, Kim served as Chief of Staff for the Cook County Board President, where she was the lead architect of the county’s criminal justice reform agenda to address racial disparities in the criminal and juvenile justice systems.

Born and raised in Cabrini Green on Chicago’s Near North Side, Kim is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, where she earned a B.A. in Political Science and a J.D. from the SIU School of Law.