Judy Clarke is currently a full-time Capital Resource Counsel for the Federal Public and Community Defender Programs. She has served as the Executive Director of two Federal Defender Programs, Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington & Idaho and Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. She has represented a number of clients accused of capital offenses, including Susan Smith in Union, South Carolina, and Theodore Kaczynski, charged as the "Unabomber."

Ms. Clarke is a 1974 graduate of Furman University, and a 1977 graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law. She is a Past President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, and was selected by the National Law Journal in 1998 as one of the top 50 women lawyers in the United States and in 2001 as one of the top women litigators in the U.S.