Alumnus/Alumna of the Month

Belinda Clark (LL.M. '87)

Read an Interview with Belinda Clark.

For the past five years Belinda Clark has been New Zealand’s secretary for justice and chief executive of the Ministry of Justice. Appointed at the age of 43, she became one of the youngest public service chief executives in the nation. She oversees a ministry responsible for administering New Zealand’s courts, advising the government on criminal justice and on public and civil legal policy, administering parliamentary elections, negotiating treaty claims with indigenous Māori groups, collecting fines and leading the justice sector (which includes the police and prison services).

The ministry has a staff of 2,700 working at 103 locations throughout New Zealand. Its operating budget is around $NZ800 million (around US $530 million). As part of the policy and legal advice function, the ministry was responsible for almost 100 bills in the past three years.

Prior to joining the ministry, Clark was the general manager of policy and planning at the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) for three years. Before that she was the first director of the Office of Treaty Settlements and oversaw the settlements of the first two major claims by indigenous tribes.

Clark has a background in commercial law and worked for Australasian law firm Minter Ellison before going to ACC. She has an LL.B. (Hons) and a B.A. from the University of Auckland and graduated with a LL.M. in international legal studies from the New York University School of Law in 1987.

During the 1980s Clark was a diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. During that time she was posted to the United Nations in New York as New Zealand’s representative to human rights and legal committees for four years.