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# Strike three: ‘Lawyer’ faces bars yet again
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/strike-three-lawyer-faces-bars-yet-again/
- Published: 2004-05-12T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:17:47.000Z
- Author: John Wood
- Tags: Crime, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Defense says City Hall must have ax to grind*

A local woman who allegedly posed as a lawyer and took more than $60,000 from her clients is expected to be locked up for the third time today, after prosecutors on Tuesday added four new charges to the 44 she already faced.

Anita Clark, 44, was arrested last year and posted $150,000 bond. In March, Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Bernard Kamins remanded her to custody and upped her bail to $175,000 at the urging of prosecutors, who alleged she was still working as an attorney. Kamins ordered Clark at that time to immediately stop practicing law.

But on Monday, prosecutors presented the court with three more alleged victims — two of which Clark allegedly worked for since March 10\. Kamins ordered Clark back into custody and added $100,000 to her bail, though he gave Clark until today to turn herself in so she could make arrangements for her three young children.

The new charges were filed with the court on Tuesday.

“She hasn’t done anything since January or February,” DeBro said. “People are calling because they have the opportunity now, because she is the evil incarnate. When people call, she’s not allowed to work — so people call (City Hall) and complain. Why wouldn’t they?”

> “That’s called extortion.” — – RICHARD DEBRO Defendant’s lawyer

DeBro said he is hoping to keep Clark out of custody by convincing Kamins that Clark hasn’t actually done any work since March. He accused City Hall of piling on meritless charges, like one against Clark for allegedly hiring a server to deliver legal papers, something DeBro said was legal and done at the alleged victim’s request. He accused another victim of extortion for allegedly threatening to press charges if he wasn’t refunded money.

“You cannot use the threat of prosecution to get money back.”

A handful of alleged victims interviewed since the case began have expressed frustration, saying Clark appeared to be a professional attorney, but then failed to return phone calls and, when she finally did call back, made promises she didn’t keep.

For years, Clark worked out of an office on Bicknell Street in Ocean Park. In a March interview, she said she moved to a new office on Wilshire Boulevard after divorcing her husband in 2002\. The rent was raised considerably after three years, forcing her to move again, said Clark, who added she missed a month’s worth of messages due to a phone line mix-up.

That’s around the time the City Attorney’s Office started tracking Clark. Prosecutors seized her records in August, later sending letters to thousands of current and past clients, according to Clark. Dozens signed onto the action against her, she feels, because her files were taken and she was unable to get in touch with many of them.

Clark now faces a total of 48 charges relating to 36 victims. The charges range from grand theft by fraud to illegally acting as an immigration consultant to practicing law without a license. Deputy City Attorney Adam Radinsky, who is prosecuting the case, has said the consumer fraud case against Clark is City Hall’s most severe in years.

It’s a crime to practice law without a license. Practicing law includes giving legal advice, making legal decisions in a case, claiming to be an expert in an area of law, contacting an opposing party and writing legal documents, according to Radinsky. Non-attorneys are limited to providing clerical help or doing paralegal work directly under a supervising attorney. Clark is not being charged with any crimes related to document preparers.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 12, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/051204.pdf?ref=smdp.com)