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Clark Stresses Women’s Self-Esteem in Lecture

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

With the glare of the O.J. Simpson criminal trial behind her, Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Marcia Clark is on the lecture circuit concentrating on women’s self-esteem and confidence.

Before a largely female crowd at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza on Thursday night, Clark spoke of her professional and personal travails as a woman--from her preschool days to the high-profile murder cases she has prosecuted. But the lawyer avoided discussion of Simpson’s ongoing civil trial.

Mixing humor and motivational techniques, Clark, 43, recounted anecdotes of sexism throughout her life and urged women to support each other.

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“This is not about who wears the pants, it’s about personhood,” she said.

Clark’s message of maintaining self-confidence despite obstacles was one her audience was predisposed to hear. During Simpson’s trial in the stabbing death of his ex-wife and her male friend, Clark became a national female role model: a bright, tough single mother juggling career and family. Her hemlines, coifs and flirtatious manner made news along with her prosecutorial acumen.

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As a woman and a lawyer, “I got scrutinized like I was the missing link,” Clark scoffed. All of the attention she received during the Simpson trial was ridiculous, she said.

“It doesn’t require muscle or speed to be a trial lawyer,” she said. “All that’s required is a bit of intelligence--not a lot, but you already know that--and a little tenacity.”

Not long after the Simpson case’s not-guilty verdicts in October 1995, Clark signed a $4.2-million book publishing contract. The as-yet-unpublished book will be written with a collaborator.

Before millions of viewers tuned into what was often called the “trial of the century,” Clark, who is now on an extended leave of absence from the D.A.’s office, had secured convictions in other high-profile cases involving women victims. She successfully prosecuted obsessed fan Robert John Bardo in the 1989 stalking murder of actress Rebecca Shaeffer. She also won convictions in the case of Albert Lewis and Anthony Oliver, half brothers who in 1989 fired a sawed-off shotgun into a Bible study class at Mt. Olive Church of God and Christ in South-Central Los Angeles, killing two women.

From her collective experiences in the Simpson trial and before, Clark said she learned something about women’s self-esteem. During the trial, “I was forced to become aware of the fact that I sought my own counsel and trusted my own instincts.”

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Although guarded about her personal life, Clark also gained notoriety when she asked her estranged husband for more money to cover the costs of weekend and evening baby-sitting during the Simpson criminal trial. Feminists rallied behind her when Gordon Clark sought primary custody of their two young sons, saying Clark was too busy prosecuting Simpson and was rarely home with the boys.

The way Clark has managed family and career impressed Cheryl Wade, a sheriff’s detective from Camarillo. “There’s no reason a woman can’t have both a career and a family,” she said. “I think she was effective in both arenas--the family and the courtroom.”

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Her friend, Carmen Carlson, a nurse from Camarillo, was clearly a fan as well.

“She is the woman of the year--probably of the decade, for sure--for being a female prosecutor of the most famous case we’ve ever had,” Carlson said.

Proceeds from Thursday’s event, the first in a series of Perspectives Foundation lectures, will benefit domestic violence programs of Interface Children Family Services. The event was sponsored by KBBY-FM (95.1), The Times Ventura County edition, Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, and AT&T; Wireless Services.

Although a few hundred people attended the event, one Westlake Village attorney noted that few of her fellow lawyers were there.

“Maybe lay people look at her as an advocate for the rights of battered women, but we look at her as pretty inept,” said Tina Rasnow, who did not attend.

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