Nanci L. Clarence is a trial lawyer who successfully has tried cases in federal and state court, ranging from complex civil litigation to white-collar crime to murder. She has represented numerous high-profile clients, and has substantial experience defending against federal and state prosecutions from the initial investigation through appeal.

Currently, Ms. Clarence focuses on the defense of white-collar criminal prosecutions, including securities fraud, antitrust and other business crimes, environmental matters as well as civil litigation and internal investigations.

She has handled significant civil and administrative matters parallel to criminal proceedings, including enforcement actions brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as NASD inquiries. Her experience with internal investigations is extensive and includes complex investigations in matters ranging from Whistleblower allegations to antitrust and trade secret violations to industrial accidents. She also has extensive experience representing individuals in connection with the investigation of stock options backdating practices. 

Background

In recognition of Ms. Clarence’s preeminence in her field, she was named by the San Francisco Magazine as one of the “Top 10 Litigators” in Northern California, and by the San Francisco Daily Journal as one of the “Top 75 Women Litigators” in the State of California in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. In 2005, she was elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Ms. Clarence is the immediate past President of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF), a prominent metropolitan bar association with over 8,000 members. She is featured in Chambers & Partners USA Guide as one of the Bay Area’s prominent white collar defense practitioners. In 2006, 2007 and 2008, Ms. Clarence was recognized as one of the top fifty women lawyers in Northern California by San Francisco Magazine. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Ms. Clarence graduated cum laude from the University of California at Berkeley in 1981, and received her law degree from Hastings College of the Law in 1985. After graduation, she served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Charles A. Legge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Before founding the firm, Ms. Clarence was a litigation associate at Morrison & Foerster in San Francisco and then became an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Northern District of California. 

Notable Cases

Notable cases Ms. Clarence has handled include representing high-ranking executives in the SEC and DOJ investigations into Enron, Homestore.com and Critical Path. Most recently, Ms. Clarence successfully defended a Texas> energy trader charged with fraud and market manipulation allegedly tied to the 2000-2001 California electricity crisis and a senior financial officer in a government investigation of alleged stock option backdating practices. She also defended a chemist accused in a federal indictment of creating AThe Clear,@ the undetectable designer drug at the heart of the BALCO steroid scandal. Litigating privacy and media issues up to the California Supreme Court, she successfully defended a woman charged with homicide after the death of an infant living in a Marin County commune.

Ms. Clarence continues to represent municipal agencies, individual employees and corporations in industrial accidents such as the 2004 pipeline explosion in Walnut Creek, and an oil refinery fire, both of which resulted in multiple worker injuries and fatalities. Ms. Clarence has been trying cases since 1987, and achieved significant courtroom successes in United States v. William Oldenburg (savings and loan/bank fraud, N.D. Cal), People v. James Mitchell (first degree murder, Marin County Superior Court), People v. Reza Eslaminia Billionaire Boys Club first degree murder charges dismissed on remand, San Mateo County Superior Court) and Schneider v. City and County of San Francisco et. al (civil rights claim which resulted in $750,000 jury verdict for plaintiff plus punitive damages, N.D.Cal).

Teaching And Advising

An effective and fierce courtroom advocate, Ms. Clarence has also been a lecturer and advisor on a wide range of topics. She served on the lawyer advisory committee for San Francisco’s United States Attorney, Robert Mueller, before he left San Francisco to head the FBI. She has taught extensively on courtroom advocacy and has been a lecturer on trial practice skills at the American Bar Association White Collar Crime Institute, the Association of Business Trial Lawyers, the Northern District of California Judicial Conference, the State Bar Litigation Section, and California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and the Advanced Training Program for Federal Defenders.

She is a frequent guest lecturer at Stanford Law School, Santa Clara Law School and Hastings College of the Law. She is the author of a chapter focusing on criminal law issues in a treatise, “Advising and Defending Corporate Directors and Officers; published in October 2006 by Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB). She is the co-author of "Finding Your Way Though a Maze: Representing Corporate Officers & Directors in a Criminal Investigation," 17 California Labor & Employment Law Review (Jan. 2003) and “Putting the Government to Its Proof Prior to Trial: Tactics for Forcing the Government’s Hand in Complex White-Collar Cases,” ABA Criminal Justice Section and the Center for Continuing Legal Education Present 19th Annual National Institute on White Collar Crime (March 2005). She also has taught at the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA) as well as the Stanford Law School Trial Practice Institute.

Community And Professional Service

Ms. Clarence is recognized as a prominent and outspoken leader in the legal community and beyond. She is the immediate past President of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF). (See www.sfbar.org). She was selected to be the Chair of the Lawyer Delegates to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference for the Northern District of California and her work was recognized by the judges of that court when she was presented with the “Outstanding Service to the Court” award in 1996. She has also served on the Board of Governors of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ), the Executive Committee of the State Bar Litigation Committee, the Board of Directors of the Community United Against Violence and the Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom. Ms. Clarence presently serves as the President on the Executive Board of the Edward J. McFetridge American Inn of Court in San Francisco.

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George recently appointed Ms. Clarence to serve on the Chief Justice’s Steering Committee on the Commission for Impartial Courts Task Force on Public Information and Education.  She previously was appointed by the Chief Justice to the California Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Lawyer Regulation.  United States Senator Barbara Boxer appointed her to serve on the Senator’s federal court judicial appointments review committee. Ms. Clarence also was appointed by Chief Judge R. Vaughn Walker in 2006 to the U.S. District Court Committee on Professional Conduct.

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Ms. Clarence was named one of the “Top 10 Litigators” in Northern California in 2007 and “Top 75 Women Litigators” in the State of California in 2005 through 2008.