Washington, D.C., July 21, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, is pleased to announce the hiring of Former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark to help orchestrate the firm’s strategic litigation efforts. NCLA has also expanded the ranks of its Litigation Counsel with the recent additions of Jenin Younes and Sheng Li. Together these three new attorneys will advance the firm’s efforts against the use of unlawful power by federal and state agencies in ways that violate Americans’ fundamental rights. By restoring constitutional constraints on the Administrative State, NCLA aims to protect everyone’s civil liberties and ensure that only accountable, elected officials make the decisions that affect people’s lives and livelihoods.
Jeffrey Clark brings decades of government and private-sector experience at the highest levels of complexity to his new, full-time role as NCLA’s Chief of Litigation and Director of Strategy. Jeff was Senate-confirmed, with bipartisan support, in 2018 as the 35th Assistant Attorney General of the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), followed by dual-hat service as the Acting Assistant Attorney General of DOJ’s Civil Division in 2020. Previously, he was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis, where he focused on appellate litigation, administrative law, and environmental law. While there, he represented the Miami relatives of Cuban national Elian Gonzalez in the international controversy over the boy’s custody and immigration before the Eleventh Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court in 2000.
Jeff is a former member of the Governing Council of the ABA’s Administrative Law Section and a former adjunct law professor at the now-Antonin Scalia Law School. He has argued in all of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, has been named a Super Lawyer, to the Legal Who’s Who, to the Nation’s One Percent, and is certified by Martindale-Hubbell as “A.V. Preeminent.” He clerked for the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Jeff earned his A.B. from Harvard University, a master’s degree from the now-Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy & Administration at the University of Delaware, and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Jenin Younes joins NCLA as Litigation Counsel. Her passionate advocacy for individual liberties began as an appellate public defender, providing representation for nearly a decade to indigent clients accused of criminal offenses in New York City. In this capacity, she briefed and argued many appeals in New York’s Appellate Division, Second Department, and in the New York State Court of Appeals. Before the pandemic hit in 2020, Jenin considered herself a liberal. She became disillusioned with administrative power after witnessing national, state, and local governments violate civil liberties with unlawful lockdowns, quarantines, and other previously unimaginable restrictions. Jenin became vocal in fighting unconstitutional pandemic policies. She sought to join NCLA upon discovering that its litigators were doing the same thing. She has appeared in major news outlets on TV and written numerous articles on the topic. Jenin clerked for the Hon. Margaret Hayden in New Jersey. She earned her B.A. with Distinction from Cornell University and her J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Sheng Li joins NCLA as Litigation Counsel. Sheng served as Counselor to the Administrator of Wage and Hour at the U.S. Department of Labor, leading numerous efforts to remove or simplify unduly burdensome regulations, including the deregulatory joint-employer and independent-contractor rules. Sheng has also worked in the private sector as a litigation associate at Kirkland & Ellis and at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler. He clerked for the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Sheng is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Johns Hopkins University, where he earned B.A. and M.A. degrees, and received his J.D. from Yale Law School.
NCLA released the following statements:
“It is deeply gratifying to add so much talent to our team. These three lawyers bring remarkable skills to the new civil liberties movement against administrative power. I am looking forward to working with them.”
— Philip Hamburger, Chairman and President, NCLA
“I am thrilled that Jeff Clark is bringing his incandescent intellect, immense knowledge of the intricacies of administrative law, and high-level experience in the halls of power to NCLA. His combination of erudition and real-world know-how will enable NCLA to accelerate the timetable for achieving our ambitious litigation goals. Likewise, the diverse training, perspectives, and experiences that Jenin Younes and Sheng Li bring to bear make them outstanding additions to the growing ranks of our Litigation Counsel.”
— Mark Chenoweth, Executive Director and General Counsel, NCLA
“I’m excited to spearhead NCLA’s strategic litigation efforts. As I’ve witnessed firsthand, the federal leviathan will continue to surge and swell unless its staggering power is confined within proper channels. Thanks to the foundational work of visionary legal scholar Philip Hamburger and the consummate legal and organizational skill of my friend Mark Chenoweth, NCLA has quickly become the most vigorous and ascendant group out there battling the Administrative State’s violations of law and restoring the people’s historic liberties.”
— Jeff Clark, Chief of Litigation and Director of Strategy, NCLA
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.
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