For years, Clarke Speaks built his career as a successful trial lawyer handling criminal defense alongside personal injury cases. Then one phone call involving a high-profile murder case forced him to ask a difficult question: Was this the career he wanted for himself and his young family?
In this episode of The Verdict, Clarke shares the deeply personal story behind his transition from criminal defense to catastrophic injury law and how those experiences continue to influence the way he fights for injured people today.
Here’s what we discuss in this episode:
⚖️ A Career Crossroads – The case that forced Clark to rethink everything
👨👩👧 Family First – Balancing professional success with personal priorities
🎓 Mentors & Values – The lawyers who shaped Clark’s philosophy
❤️ A Forgotten Client – The personal injury case that changed his perspective
🏛️ Finding Purpose – Why Clark chose to devote his career to helping injury victims
Client Links
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Transcript (Click To Read)
Clark: I’m Clark Speaks, the catastrophic injury lawyer. Welcome to the verdict.
Carson Grace Toomer: Now tell me about your business now and how maybe an old mentor had kind of shaped, you know, your principles and values for running your business now.
Clark: Sure. Yeah. So I uh, so now we have an injury law uh, firm and that’s what we do is injuries. Uh, in the past I’ve done uh, you know, when I started I did everything I, that you know, I could do. Right. I did divorce and criminal and uh, personal injury and I did lots, um, of different things. Um, I did some real estate and then uh, over time I uh, you know, gravitated towards trial work and I did a lot of criminal defense and personal injury. And then it’s. Criminal defense is um, funny. The better you get at criminal defense, the more accomplished you get, the more recognized in your career that you get, the worse and worse and worse and worse the scenarios are, will you become involved? The cases are. And so uh, at some point in my career, uh, you know I’m called about a case and it’s a very serious case. It’s, it’s again it’s on the COVID of USA uh Today, you know, and uh, it’s terrible violent situation, gang related stuff and murders and all this, you know. And, and so I was called about it and said hey, will you please represent this uh, individual who’s responsible for the whole thing. And so, so uh, there’s. So at first my reaction is you got it that right. Yeah, absolutely, I’ll definitely do that. You know, and I’m, and I’m like celebrating it in my mind because um, I feel like I’m recognized as. They would not call everybody to do this. This would be, this is like they’re only going to call the all star team in the state to represent the people who are involved in this uh, case. So I took it as a, as a compliment and the recogn some of the things that I had accomplished in my career. And so that was a good thing. Uh, but so I get off the phone with them and I uh, call my wife and we have small kids at the time and I’m like, hey, um, listen, I’m involved in this case with some very, very, very dangerous people. So we’re going to have to take some precautions and I’m gonna, and here’s what I’m gonna ask you to do going forward. She’s kind of quiet on the other. And as I’m saying it, I’m hearing myself for the first time saying these things out loud and I’m like uh, I’m torn because I believe in those principles, right? I believe in the principles of protecting the individual against big groups. Like I’m ah, a underdog kind of person. You know, um, I’m a David, not Goliath kind of person. So when I see, when I used to be in court and I would see, you know, you know, the judge and the bailiffs and the DAs and the cops and all this and one person, I can’t help sympathizing with, that one person. I don’t know they did it. I don’t know they didn’t do it. But I cannot help feeling like, you know, somebody uh, needs to be there to protect that, that individual and make sure that that individual has some degree of, uh, of protection and to the best of his or her ability. Now justice can be done and justice should be done. And if it was my family member or me that was negatively impacted, I would want justice to be done. But from a broader perspective, from a societal perspective, somebody needs to be there to uh, protect that person and to protect that person’s rights. I think that is fundamentally important. So I believed in all that. And I had phenomenal teachers in law school and trial skills professors and these kinds of things. I also had these mentors, um, both um, in school and out of school, uh, who were criminal defense lawyers who I looked up to a great deal. Buddy Allard, uh, was a phenomenal world class, uh, criminal, uh, defense lawyer who is a mentor, uh, of mine and a friend of mine. My old partner Jeff Hosford is a phenomenal, unbelievable criminal defense lawyer. So talented, so dedicated. So I’m like, um, so as I’m working through this case, I’m thinking about these and I’m telling my wife this story. I’m thinking, you know, I’m like, I gotta, you know, I’ve got little kids. And then I’m like, I don’t want to let down this cause that I believe in. I don’t want to let down these mentors that have invested in me, you know, um, but as I’m saying it and all this is going through my mind and finally I’m like, yeah, I can’t, I can’t do this. So I call the people back and I say, hey listen, I told you I would be involved in this case. I’ll represent somebody in this case. But I’m not representing the main guy. I’ve got little kids and this is not where I would need to be in my life right now. And so I ended up representing Somebody. But it wasn’t the same magnitude of danger. You know, like, that was somebody who was not, uh, that was for somebody who did not have little kids and all this. Um, they had kidnapped the people in the case, had kidnapped family members and were, you know, had murdered other people, were plotting the murder of the lawyer’s family and all this. So it was a bad situation. So, anyway, so I. After that, I started thinking to myself, you know, what do I. I had another person who had said to me, uh, look back over your career and talk to me about. So I’m trying to reinvent myself. I’m like, I can’t do this. Every case I have going forward is going to be worse than the next one or the last one. You know what I mean? I’m going to represent worse and worse and worse people in more and more and more difficult situations and more and more dangerous situations. So I’m like, I’ve got. But I’ve got trial skills. So the trial skills in criminal law are very much the same as the trial skills in personal injury. And I’d always done personal injury. I’d had personal injury cases all through this time, right? So I did both. And so, uh. But the opening is. The skills are the same. The cross is. The skills are the same. Direct examination is the same. Closing is the same. You know, courtroom presence, courtroom, uh, skills are all very similar. You know, one skill is like the other. Um, and in fact, you get a whole lot more. Like, in other words, just walking around town, I’ll see the billboards of everybody else. I was in court every day for 20 years. The people who you would see on the billboards around town, I have never seen them one time in person or much less in the courthouse. And I was in the courthouse every day for 20 years. So you get a lot more trial experience from being in there. So I was uniquely qualified because I had trial experience, but I also had personal injury experience of building these cases. Uh, and then I, uh, had worked for this insurance defense firm. So the guy says to me, this guy says to me, if you’re not going to do criminal defense going forward, what should. What do you want to do? And I started thinking about a case where I had had years before, where a person who I had represented had nobody, right? Nobody. And they had been hit by a commercial vehicle. She was seriously injured, uh, and they were trying to, like, pay her nothing. And she had broken bones and screws and plates. But she was homeless. She was a drug addict, she was a prostitute. She had in Fact, uh, in fact, her, you know, boss or pimp or whatever would come to the office with me. And one time, uh, in particular, I’m like, you know, I’m like, you got to get out of here. I don’t want to ever see you again. You gotta. And she calls me aside and she’s like, you can’t do that. You know, don’t do that. I know what you’re trying to do. You can’t do that. You’re gonna get me in, in trouble. So you’re my lawyer. I’m instructing you to be courteous to this person. So, so that’s the kind of situation that it was. So I represented her over a period of time and, and we got a good result for us. Probably a two year and a half long process. We got a really good result for her, and I was able. And uh, when she said thank you at the end of that, it really meant something to me and it meant something to her because nobody had ever fought for her like that. Nobody had ever. And I was. This is how you. This is how the criminal defense world works, right? You know, like, you know, you become close to people who are maybe, uh, not from. Maybe from a different background and you fight for them. And that’s the way my mentors had done. And they treated everybody the same, regardless of where they come from or what they look like or what, whatever. And I like that about that world, and I like. And, and I intended to apply it to this world. And so I. So I enjoyed the process of representing her. And it was a difficult situation and she appreciated it. And so I’m like, well, this is. I told him I got my guy, my mentor guy about this experience, and he’s like, well, maybe you should do personal injury. And I’m like, well, you know, you’re probably right. You know, I think I’m probably in a unique position to be able to do that effectively. And so we made a transition from then to, uh, personal, uh, injury law. Thanks for joining us. Don’t forget to subscribe and follow us to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. We’ll see you next time.
