Kedric Payne

At CLC, Kedric has been at the forefront of advancing reforms on issues such as congressional stock trading, Supreme Court ethics enforcement, executive branch conflicts of interest, and state ethics commission autonomy. His legal work and analysis have been featured in media outlets including ABC, CNBC, CNN, C-SPAN, NPR, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post. He has also testified at congressional hearings on government ethics and accountability.

Before joining CLC, Kedric built a broad legal career across all three branches of the federal government and in private practice. He began as a litigator at Cravath and later practiced political law at Skadden. He went on to serve as Deputy Chief Counsel at the Office of Congressional Ethics and as a Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he advised on federal ethics laws. Earlier in his career, he clerked for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Kedric earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review and later returned as an adjunct professor of political law. He is admitted to practice in both the District of Columbia and New York.