Sparkle L. Sooknanan is currently the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, a role she has had since 2023. She was previously a Deputy Associate Attorney General in the Department of Justice after first working in the Department as an appellate attorney in the Civil Division from to 2012 to 2013. Prior to that, Sooknanan worked in private practice at Jones Day and became a partner at the firm in 2020. She has clerked for Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Guido Calabresi on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Judge Eric N. Vitaliano on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. She received her J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 2010, her M.B.A. from Hofstra University in 2003, and her B.S. from St. Francis College in 2002.
