Ben Clark ’06 didn’t see it coming when he arrived at Northeastern Law. Then, as so often happens, a co-op became a calling. “Prosecution wasn’t at the top of my list or even on my radar,” recalls Clark, now an assistant US attorney in the Northern District of New York. “But my co-op with the US Attorney’s Office in Boston made me realize I wanted to be a prosecutor.”

From that first co-op, Clark went on to serve as a summer associate with Mintz Levin in Boston. He chose a final co-op with the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted misdemeanors. “Each co-op built on my experience and growing passion for criminal trial work,” Clark explains. After Northeastern, Clark spent four years at Mintz Levin, gaining experience and training that, he says, “serve as the backbone of my work as a prosecutor.” Clark and his family then moved to upstate New York so he could serve as a prosecutor where he grew up. In 2022, after 12 years prosecuting complex fraud cases at the state level, Clark joined the US Attorney’s Office in Albany. “It felt like I was completing the circle, from that first co-op to working as a federal prosecutor,” says Clark, who now handles all types of cases, including financial crime, drug and firearm trafficking/RICO violations and child exploitation.

“It might be cliche, but what I love about being a prosecutor is I get paid to do the right thing every day,” he says. “And the education we get at Northeastern goes hand in hand with that.”