2202 OLYMPIC BLVD., SANTA MONICA • (310) 829-2563 Associates” — had been disconnected. A voice message left for DeBro was not immediately returned.
One of Clark’s old offices at 204 Bicknell St. has since become the home of a post-production house called “7 Spirits Entertainment,” run by actor Damian Chapa. Chapa said several groups of attorneys worked in the building before he moved in, but that he didn’t know Clark and wasn’t aware of any illegal activity.
Two men moving boxes into a rented U- Haul truck out front said Clark’s husband, Paul, had just moved out of the building a month earlier. The men, who didn’t give their names, said Paul Clark might have also been working with Clark & Clark.
Radinsky declined to say if Paul Clark was involved.
“He’s not a defendant in this action,” Radinsky said, adding, “There are some aspects of this case that are still being investigated.”
John Pham, manager of Christina’s Nails, located next door on Main Street, also said Paul Clark had recently moved out. Pham said he hadn’t seen Anita Clark, once a regular customer at the nail shop, in over a year. He added the two might have been suffering from marital troubles and possibly even split up.
“They were friendly,” said Pham, who said the couple moved next door several years earlier. “Anita, she came in and got a fill and a wax. She’s so nice.”
In addition to the Bicknell Street office, Radinsky said Anita Clark worked out of offices throughout the westside and the San Fernando Valley.
“The case is really a double red flag — consumers who think they can’t afford a lawyer should be very careful about whom they hire. And would-be paralegals had better be working for an attorney,” Radinsky said in a prepared statement issued to members of the media Tuesday.
Former federal prosecutor Jean Rosenbluth, an assistant law professor at the University of Southern California, said that even though consumers should-n’t have to check the backgrounds of their lawyers or paralegals, they should anyway. She added that this type of activity, though not rampant, isn’t unheard of.
And, often, it’s people who can’t pass the state bar examination or are later disbarred that are guilty of practicing without a license, she added.
“At least a fair number of these people are relatively educated, sophisticated people that are able to pass themselves off as an attorney for a fair period of time before they are caught,” Rosenbluth said. “I think it’s more than a way to make good money. I think, in some of these cases, there is some visceral excitement in appearing in court.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 10, 2003. Read the original PDF.