Professor Pamela S. Karlan

Pamela S. Karlan is the Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law and a founder and co-director of the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at Stanford Law School. Her primary scholarship involves constitutional litigation, particularly with respect to voting rights and antidiscrimination law. 

After clerking for U.S. District Court Judge Abraham Sofaer and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, she practiced law at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, focusing on employment discrimination and voting rights. She also served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. There, she received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service (the Department’s highest award for employee performance) for work in implementing the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor and the John Marshall Award for Providing Legal Advice for her work on Title VII and gender identity.