Mary A. Clarke
Overview
Mary Clarke guides businesses and key stakeholders through all regulatory, legislative, and compliance matters impacting the alcohol and hemp beverage industry, proactively managing risk and creating adaptable frameworks for rapidly evolving regulatory and enforcement policies. Her strategic counsel also extends to emerging and other highly regulated products and industries, including hemp-derived products.
Adept at balancing state and federal regulatory policies with effective business operations, Mary ensures trade practice compliance, oversees current and proposed legislation and guidance, and manages e-commerce considerations while prioritizing clients’ short- and long-term objectives. She also boasts considerable experience engaging with federal and state agencies, including the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the FDA.
With a diverse in-house and legislative background complementing her private sector work, Mary’s counsel is as comprehensive and anticipatory as it is detail-oriented and preservative. As former assistant general counsel to Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America, she focused on all aspects of the three-tier alcohol beverage system and assisted in developing policy principles for the regulation of intoxicating hemp beverages. Earlier in her career, she served as the Maryland House of Delegates’ Economic Matters Committee Counsel, where she drafted legislation and advised lawmakers on all matters pertaining to her primary focus areas – alcohol, cannabis, business regulation, and commercial law.
Mary’s early private sector experience includes serving as a legislative policy advisor for Lyft, where she advised on labor, employment, privacy, and emerging technology laws across 25 states.
Credentials
Education
- George Washington University Law School, 2016 (J.D.)
- Johns Hopkins University, 2011 (B.A.)