Jennifer Ahearn serves as senior counsel for the Brennan Center’s Judiciary Program, working to ensure that federal courts effectively play their critical role in our democracy. Prior to joining the Brennan Center, she was policy director at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, where she led a team focused on government ethics and accountability, reducing the negative impacts of money in politics, increasing government transparency, and promoting the rule of law.
Ahearn spent the first decade of her legal career working for the federal judiciary, first as law clerk to Judge Thomas B. Russell of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, and then in the Office of General Counsel at the United States Sentencing Commission. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and law and master’s degrees from Duke University.
