Jessica Clarke writes on antidiscrimination law, with a focus on sex, gender, and sexuality. Her work has appeared in law journals including the California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, New York University Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, and Yale Law Journal, as well as other outlets including the New England Journal of Medicine, Los Angeles Times and Harvard Business Review. She has twice received the Dukeminier Award for the best legal scholarship on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Prior to joining USC, Clarke taught at Vanderbilt Law School, where she held the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair and co-directed the George Barrett Social Justice Program, and at the University of Minnesota Law School, where she received the Stanley V. Kinyon award for teacher of the year. In the fall of 2016, she was the Walter V. Schaefer Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago Law School, and in the fall of 2022, she was the Bruce Bromley Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School.

Before joining the academy, Clarke was a litigation associate at Covington & Burling LLP in New York. She clerked for Judge Shira Scheindlin of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and Judge Rosemary Pooler of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Clarke is a graduate of Yale Law School.