Kara Gross is the Legislative Director and Senior Policy Counsel of the ACLU of Florida. She advocates for statewide legislation and policies defending and advancing civil rights and liberties across ACLU’s priority issue areas, including criminal justice reform, immigrants’ rights, voting rights, reproductive justice, LGBTQ rights, and freedom of speech.
Prior to joining the ACLU of Florida, she served as Senior Assistant General Counsel for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Prior to that, she was an associate director of legal programs at a statewide nonprofit domestic violence advocacy organization.
Before moving to Florida, she lived in New York City and was an associate at Morgan Lewis in their Labor and Employment Practice Group, and prior to that she was a litigation associate at Debevoise & Plimpton. She began her legal career clerking for the Honorable Theodore H. Katz, United States Magistrate Judge, in the Southern District of New York. She received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Brooklyn Law School, and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington University. During law school, she served on the Executive Board of the Brooklyn Law Review, interned at NOW Legal Defense Fund (Legal Momentum), and worked at the NYC Commission on Human Rights. Prior to law school, she lived in Washington, DC, and worked for Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).
She is admitted to practice in Florida, New York, New Jersey and the U.S. Supreme Court.