Marcia Clark

Marcia Clark began the practice of law in criminal defense (two years as an attorney and two years as a law clerk). She joined the Office of the District Attorney in Los Angeles in 1981 where she handled thousands of cases, ranging from drunk driving to child molestation, armed robbery and murder, four of which were cases in which the death penalty was sought. Three of those defendants now sit on death row.

Clark tried a number of high profile cases prior to the O.J. Simpson case, including the prosecution of stalker/murderer Robert Bardo, whose conviction for the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer resulted in legislation that offered victims better protection from stalkers as well as increased punishment for the offenders.

Since the Simpson trial, Clark has toured the U.S. and Canada giving lectures on a variety of women’s issues including domestic violence, inspirational/motivational speeches, lectures on public service careers, and of course, the “Trial of the Century.”

Clark has written three crime novels in a series featuring Special Trials Prosecutor, Rachel Knight as well as two short story thrillers with Rachel at the center of the plot. The first in the series, Guilt by Association, was a national bestseller and garnered starred reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. Following that debut novel, the career adventures of Rachel Knight were further chronicled in Guilt by Degrees (2012) and, most recently, Killer Ambition (June, 2013).

In May of 1997, her book on the Simpson case, Without a Doubt was published and quickly rose to #1 on the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers lists. Her promotional tour for the book took her across the country with appearances on the Today Show, 20/20 with Barbara Walters, the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Tonight Show and CNN’s Larry King, just to name a few.

From February 1998 to 2000 Clark was under contract as a legal analyst and expert commentator for NBC, CNBC and MSNBC. While at the network she worked weekly as a guest host of Geraldo Rivera’s Rivera Live, and substituted regularly when Rivera was on location or vacation. In addition to these duties, she also hosted Equal Time for CNBC and Judge and Jury for MSNBC.

Clark has appeared on the Today Show, The Early Show and a wide variety of shows such as Hannity and Combs, The O’Reilly Factor and Hardball with Chris Matthews. On the radio front, she hosted her own talk show for talk radio station KFI called “The Marcia Clark Show,” she also guest hosted shows for talk radio stations KRLA and KLSX and has been a frequent guest on shows as diverse as “The Rick Dees in the Morning Show” and “The Howard Stern Show.”

Clark signed with Entertainment Tonight as Special Correspondent in April of 2002 and has reported and commented on the cases of Robert Blake, Winona Ryder, Roman Polanski, Kobe Bryant, Lacy Peterson and Michael Jackson. She is a frequent commentator on CNN and HLN, most recently on the Casey Anthony and Conrad Murray trials.

In addition to doing on-air legal analysis and commentary, Clark has been a guest performer on a number of hour and half-hour primetime series including the primetime CBS drama series First Monday and the primetime UPN comedy series Girlfriends.

Marcia Clark (with writing partner, Catherine LePard) has sold a one hour pilot to the FX network and a one hour pilot to Lifetime with Catherine LePard. Clark has developed numerous reality shows for CBS, one of which, Live Justice, was shot to pilot, and is developing a reality project with Ghen Maynard and Base Productions.