Jennifer J. Clark

JENNIFER CLARK is a partner in Sidley’s Supreme Court and Appellate group. Her practice spans a wide range of substantive areas and legal issues, including constitutional law, administrative law, patent and intellectual property, federal preemption, foreign sovereign immunities and other contract and commercial disputes. She has authored or co-authored briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court, federal courts of appeals and state Supreme Courts, as well as critical motions and pleadings in federal and state trial courts. She has also presented oral argument before federal courts of appeals.

Prior to joining Sidley, Jennifer served as a law clerk to Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court. From 2009–2010, Jennifer was a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, where she worked on multiple Supreme Court cases and successfully argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Before starting her legal career, Jennifer worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the United States, Switzerland, Bosnia and along the Kosovo border.

Jennifer’s representative matters include:

• A federal court challenge to a multi-agency rule implementing the credit risk retention provision of the Dodd-Frank Act, resulting in a D.C. Circuit decision ordering the rule vacated insofar as it applies to managers of open-market Collateralized Loan Obligations.
• Federal Circuit appeals concerning claim construction and doctrine of equivalents, resulting in vacatur of a multi-million dollar patent damages award.
• Representation of accounting firm in breach of fiduciary duty and malpractice claim in federal district court and before the First Circuit resulting in vacatur of multi-million dollar jury award, dismissal in part and new trial in part (matter resolved).
• Court of Federal Claims case for back pay involving constitutional and statutory issues.

• Edward Coke Appellate Inn of Court, member

Jennifer maintains an active pro bono practice. Her pro bono matters have included briefing and arguing a D.C. Circuit appeal concerning the availability of a private right of action for constitutional violations under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971). Jennifer has also co-authored a petition for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court involving relief under the Convention Against Torture and an amicus brief in the Ohio Supreme Court in an important juvenile sentencing case raising significant federal constitutional issues.