Advocating for people with disabilities

Laura Wolk ’16 J.D.

Law Clerk, Supreme Court of the United States

NOTRE DAME LAW SCHOOL

Wolk, an accomplished graduate of Notre Dame Law School who has been blind since she lost her eyesight to retinal cancer at 15 months old, serves as a tireless advocate for people with disabilities.

Wolk believes people with disabilities suffer unduly because of a lack of technological resources, social stigma, and other structural inequities, and she advocates for the dismantling of these structures and for full inclusion for people with disabilities.

She excelled at Notre Dame Law School, where she was a member of the Notre Dame Law Review, served as president of the St. Thomas More Society, received a scholarship award, and at graduation earned the Dean Joseph O’Meara Award for outstanding academic excellence. After graduating, she clerked for two federal judges and now serves as a clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during the 2019 term, making her the third Notre Dame Law School graduate to clerk for Justice Thomas, and the first blind person to clerk for an active justice on the Supreme Court. Drawing on her deep faith and knowledge of the law, she serves as a powerful advocate for the dignity of all human beings.