PERSON: Kristen Clarke

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

President & Executive Director

Kristen M. Clarke (born 1975) is an American attorney who served as the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division at the United States Department of Justice from 2021 to 2025. Clarke previously served as president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She also managed the Civil Rights Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s Office under Eric Schneiderman.

In 2021, President-elect Joe Biden selected Clarke to head the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. The U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination on May 25, 2021, by a vote of 51 to 48. Clarke made history as the first woman confirmed to lead the Civil Rights Division.

Clarke’s parents immigrated to Brooklyn from Jamaica. She has said that she “grew up in a household that was about discipline, working hard in school and about making the most of every opportunity”. Clarke was a member of Prep for Prep, a non-profit organization that looks to support students of color in accessing private school education.

Clarke attended Choate Rosemary Hall, where she was the only girl to join the boys’ wrestling squad.

She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, where she was president of the Black Students Association. In 1996, only 11 percent of juniors and seniors at the college were black, while 25 percent of juniors and seniors living in Quad houses were black, according to a student-produced report.

Clarke graduated from Harvard in 1997, then earned a Juris Doctor from Columbia Law School in 2000. After graduating she worked as a trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. In this capacity, she served as a federal prosecutor and worked on voting rights, hate crimes, and human trafficking cases.

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