In her role as General Counsel, Kristen Clarke oversees the NAACP's legal strategy, leads the National Office's legal department, and provides legal advocacy and support to more than 3,400 legal units across the country. Clarke served as the 19th Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2021 to 2025.  In this role, she led federal civil rights enforcement efforts across the country. Under her leadership, the Division established new enforcement records for prosecutions of hate crimes, and law enforcement misconduct cases, and achieved groundbreaking results in areas including voting rights, redlining, environmental justice, education, fair housing, disability rights and more. Clarke's tenure brought renewed focus on victims and survivors of violence. She has worked on some of the most consequential civil rights cases of our time and brings deep expertise to the NAACP's Office of General Counsel.

Clarke is a recognized civil rights leader. She served as President and Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and has held leadership roles at the New York State Attorney General's Office and LDF. A lifelong civil rights lawyer, she began her career as a trial attorney in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, working primarily on cases in the Deep South.

Clarke is a frequent public speaker who has helped to shape the national dialogue around issues of civil and constitutional rights, and race and democracy. She has also written several law review articles, and edited two books. She also leads the Civil Rights Clinic at Howard University School of Law where she works to train the next generation of civil rights lawyers and advocates. 

Clarke is a graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School.