Joan D. Clay is the staff attorney for the Community Enterprise and Solidarity Economy Clinic (CESEC) at The UIC John Marshall Law School. The clinic provides free transactional legal services to community-based for-profit and non-profit entities headed by low-income entrepreneurs including cooperatives, small businesses, social enterprises, and other clients with unmet needs. Joan teaches, supervises, and mentors students taking the clinic.

Prior to this role, Joan was a Visiting Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of the Mortgage Foreclosure Clinic at Touro Law Center in New York. The Mortgage Foreclosure Clinic provided pro bono representation to Suffolk County homeowners facing foreclosure.

Before her public interest law career, Joan was a solo practitioner in her Chicago law firm and specialized in business and real estate law for almost 10 years. Throughout her legal career she has always given back by volunteering at various legal organizations that provide free legal services. She currently volunteers at Chicago Volunteer Legal Services and at the Anti Cruelty Society. Joan is a proud member of the South Side Giving Circle of Chicago Foundation for Women.

She is admitted to the Bars in Illinois and New York. She received her B.A. in communications with an emphasis in journalism from Loyola University of Chicago. She earned her J.D. at the University of Detroit, Mercy Law School.