In each issue of Bar News, WSBA President Adewale will ask one Washington legal professional, one “Hero of Justice,” to share how they came to practice law.
Jazmyn Clark
Smart Justice Policy Program Director
American Civil Liberties Union of Washington
For me, the pursuit of justice has never been abstract; it has always been deeply personal. Growing up with the impacts of domestic violence, I saw firsthand how instability and harm can ripple through every aspect of a person’s life. Those early experiences ignited in me a determination to enter the legal field, not only to confront injustice, but to ensure the law could serve as a tool for safety, dignity, and transformation.
I began my career as a public defender, representing people whose lives were deeply entangled in the criminal legal system. That work was both humbling and galvanizing. I witnessed clients navigate impossible choices and devastating consequences, often rooted in poverty, systemic racism, or untreated trauma. Standing beside them in court reaffirmed the importance of individual advocacy, but it also made clear that real change requires shifting the systems that perpetuate harm.
That recognition led me to policy advocacy, where I now serve as the Smart Justice Policy Program director at the ACLU of Washington. In this role, I work to challenge the criminalization of poverty and homelessness, reimagine public safety beyond policing, and advance laws that expand people’s freedoms rather than constrain them. It is the same fight I carried into courtrooms as a public defender, now widened to confront the laws and policies that shape those courtrooms in the first place.
The cause of justice is worth fighting for because it is about people’s lives and their humanity. Every unjust stop, every unnecessary arrest, every law that punishes survival reinforces inequities that generations have carried. But every reform, every protection of rights, and every step toward accountability bring us closer to a system that honors fairness and dignity. That vision, a legal system that liberates rather than oppresses, is why I remain in this fight.