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 Nanci L. Clarence is a trial lawyer who successfully has tried significant cases in federal and state court, ranging from complex civil matters 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. In 2005, she was elected a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Ms. Clarence is a past President of the Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF), a prominent metropolitan bar association with over 8,000 members.
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, including enforcement actions brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Her experience in conducting internal investigations is extensive and includes complex investigations in matters ranging from Whistleblower allegations to antitrust and trade secret violations to industrial accidents and other securities matters.
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 May 2009 she was honored by Women Defenders at their annual event celebrating the successes of women in her field.
 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. 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 number of senior executives in government investigations of alleged stock option backdating practices. Ms. Clarence has conducted internal investigations concerning trade secret violations, securities practices and financial irregularities and contracting in the workers compensation insurance industry. She has extensive experience representing individual defendants and witnesses internationally in investigations and prosecutions alleging price fixing and other violations. She also defended a chemist accused in a federal indictment of creating “The Clear”, the undetectable designer drug at the heart of the BALCO steroid scandal.
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. Recently, Ms. Clarence taught at the ABA Institute on Corporate Internal Investigation in Washington, D.C. She served on the lawyer advisory committee for San Francisco’s United States Attorney, Robert Mueller, before he was appointed 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 Through 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). Recently, she co-authored an article entitled “Updating Upjohn” which was presented to the ABA Institute on Corporate Internal Investigations in Washington, D.C. 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
Recently, May 2009, Ms. Clarence was honored by the Women Defenders for her more than 20 years of dedicated work in defending white-collar criminal prosecutions, including securities fraud, antitrust and other business crimes, environmental matters, civil litigation and internal investigations. Ms. Clarence is recognized as a prominent and outspoken leader in the legal community and beyond. She is a 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), and the Executive Committee of the State Bar Litigation Committee. She is the immediate past President on the Executive Board of the Edward J. McFetridge American Inn of Court in San Francisco. (www.ejminnofcourt.com)
California Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George 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.
Articles by Nanci Clarence
 Updating Upjohn? Lessons from United States v. Nicholas for Attorneys Conducting Internal Investigations
Presented at the American Bar Association Section of Business Law, Criminal Justice Section, and the ABA Center for Continuing Legal Education
May 6-8, 2009, Washington, DC
Are Your Jurors Awake? Pursuading by use of 21st Century Technologies
September 2008
Speaker, American College of Trial Lawyers, Toronto, Canada
Borderline Intrusive
Daily Journal, February 29, 2008
Article by Nanci Clarence and Craig Bessenger
Every attorney who travels internationally with a laptop computer or other electronic storage device containing privileged and confidential information should pay close attention to United States v. Arnold, a case pending before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Commitment to Diversity and Social Justice
Nanci Clarence, Bar Association of San Francisco
December 14, 2006
Nanci Clarence, in her president’s address to BASF, emphasizes the organization’s commitment to leadership in diversity and social justice.
Representing Corporate Officers and Directors in a Criminal Investigation
California Labor, January 2003
Article by Nanci L. Clarence and Greg Gilchrist
Corporate crime is in the spotlight. It is a hot topic not only in the headlines, but also in U.S. Attorney's Offices around the nation.
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