We were both happy to unwrap this portrait of Kelly Clark, my former law partner. One of our lovely clients and friends commissioned the picture from her talented artist son after Kelly passed away last December. She found and embellished the antique frame herself.
It is really a striking likeness of Kelly! We are honored and touched by her generous and loving spirit. We deeply appreciate the gift.
I had the privilege of working closely with Kelly for seven years prior to his untimely passing. Kelly asked me to join him in his work on behalf of sex abuse survivors in February 2007, when he had just started work on his first sex abuse case against the Mormon Church and his first case against the Boy Scouts. For seven years, he and I worked together dozens of clients’ cases against perpetrators and institutions of trust that allowed abuse to happen.
We represented adults who had been sexually abused as children by trusted figures such as pastors, teachers, coaches, and family members in organizations including the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts of America, Boys & Girls Clubs, day care centers, Seventh Day Adventist schools, the Apostolic Faith Church, the Morrison Center, and others.
For Kelly Clark, representing survivors of child abuse was more than a job, it was a passion and a ministry to which he was thoroughly committed. He always thought of our kind of civil litigation as one way to help abuse victims heal, get justice, and find some semblance of closure. But he always encouraged our clients to work with a counselor they trusted, get help with substance abuse, and otherwise find support outside of their lawsuits.
That’s my model as well for working with my clients. Healing is always the goal.