For nearly twenty years, Kelly Clark was a leading advocate for victims of child abuse. Mr. Clark started his work while in Oregon legislature, co-authoring both Oregon’s child abuse statute of limitations and the ban on child pornography.
After returning to private practice, attorney Kelly Clark represented hundreds of children and adults abused as children by trusted adults, including Catholic priests, Boy Scout leaders, ministers, coaches, teachers and police officers.
Kelly Clark’s 1999 win against the Archdiocese of Portland in the Oregon Supreme Court in the case of Fearing v. Bucher changed the law in Oregon and gained national attention for its landmark theory of liability for “institutions of trust” whose employees abuse children.
His 2008 win in the Supreme Court against a local police agency operating a Boy Scout Explorer post was significant for its elimination of special immunities in the law for governmental child abusers and their employers.
In 2010, Kelly Clark was lead counsel in a Portland trial against the Boy Scouts of America that featured, for the first time ever, the so-called “Perversion Files” –secret files kept by Boy Scouts of America on pedophiles active in the organization.