Kathleen Clark

Kathleen Clark is a Professor at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law, holding the prestigious John S. Lehman Research Professor and Israel Treiman Faculty Fellow appointments. She has taught at the University of Michigan, Cornell University, Utrecht University, and the University of Economics and Law in Vietnam. Clark is licensed to practice law in Washington, DC, where she serves on the Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee of the D.C. Bar. Her government service includes serving as an ethics lawyer for the District of Columbia government (where she wrote an Ethics Manual for 32,000 employees), counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and clerk to Federal District Judge Harold H. Greene. She serves as a board member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers and as Associate Reporter for the American Law Institute's Principles of Government Ethics.

Clark earned her B.A. in Physics & Philosophy cum laude from Yale College in 1984 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1990. She expanded her international perspective by studying Russian in the Soviet Union and Spanish in Guatemala.

Professor Clark's research focuses on legal ethics, government ethics, whistleblowing law, and national security law, examining the intersection of ethics, transparency, and accountability in government operations. Her scholarship addresses conflict of interest standards, intelligence oversight mechanisms, and legal frameworks governing whistleblowers, often taking a comparative approach between the United States and Canada. With work cited in hundreds of articles and books and excerpted in legal ethics textbooks, Clark has shaped national conversations about government ethics through contributions to major publications including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Economist.

Her publication record reveals consistent focus on government accountability mechanisms, evolving from foundational work on legal ethics to specific applications in intelligence oversight and whistleblowing protections. Recent scholarship addresses contemporary challenges including presidential ethics executive orders, congressional oversight of national security matters, and financial incentives for whistleblowers, demonstrating practical application of ethical principles to real-world governance challenges with concrete reform recommendations.

Her significant honors include:

• John S. Lehman Research Professor at Washington University
• Israel Treiman Faculty Fellow at Washington University

Professor Clark has led extensive anti-corruption and ethics workshops internationally across six continents and has conducted comprehensive ethics training for government agencies at all levels. Her service as Associate Reporter for the American Law Institute's Principles of Government Ethics represents a major contribution to shaping ethical standards for government officials nationwide, reflecting her commitment to advancing ethical governance through both theoretical scholarship and practical implementation.