Kelly Clark is a seasoned attorney investigator, strategist, and leader with more than twenty-five years of experience in investigations, executive decision-making, and organizational leadership within one of California’s largest District Attorney’s Offices. Kelly has her Juris Doctorate Degree from Golden Gate University and is a member of the California State Bar and the Association of Workplace Investigators. She graduated from California State University, Chico with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Political Science.

What should your clients know about you from the start? What is your superpower?

I think that my superpower is that people feel very comfortable talking to me. This has been a gift my whole life: I can go into a room and I can talk to almost anyone. This helps me get to the meat of the issue very quickly. In my work I tend to meet with many people who don’t  want to talk and after just a few minutes of discussion and understanding, we’re laughing, we’re talking, and we’re really getting down to what the issues are. I think being able to communicate with anybody is a very important quality that is necessary when you’re trying to make things better in a situation.

Do you have a motto, a word, or a phrase that people tend to associate with you?

I would say that the word that describes me is approachable. It goes back to being vulnerable and willing to share myself, with the hopes that the person I’m working with will also open up and talk.

Because when you’re talking with people, particularly when you’re doing investigations, you end up engaging with people from all walks of life. You’ll encounter everyone from somebody with advanced degrees to sometimes people with less than high school education and you need to be able to communicate and talk to everybody and make them feel comfortable.

What other career paths have called to you in life?

All my life, I always wanted to be in the mix. I’ve always been the person who wants to look at a problem or conflict and tries to figure out what’s going on.

If I was not an attorney, or a deputy district attorney as I was in my prior career, I might have gone into law enforcement or into some type of counseling or psychology field. I’m very interested in understanding the “why” of the motivations of people, and why they do certain things, and to be able to paint the whole picture.

But no matter what, I would have definitely done something where I was in the mix.

What inspires you about the public sector? What do you find inspiring about this work?

I think people that work in the public sector are oftentimes overlooked or discounted.

By far, most of the people I’ve ever worked with in the public sector are very hardworking people that want to do a really good job and that don’t necessarily get the credit for it. I really enjoy working with the people that I know are working hard and trying to make society better. I don’t like to see the efforts of public sector employees being overlooked, so I do my best to celebrate and recognize that effort.

What made you want to work with MRG?

My very good friend, Yolanda Underwood, has worked with MRG for years and years.

We have a tradition we began 23 years ago of monthly lunches and when she affiliated with MRG, she would tell me about the work that she was doing and how exciting and how fun it was. When she started describing the investigation aspects of MRG, it really piqued my interest. I thought, ‘I know how to talk to people, I can ask questions and I certainly like to investigate situations’ And all of it seemed to really work together.

When I was twilighting out of my last career, but certainly not ready to be done working, MRG was an amazing opportunity; I’m really glad that I jumped on board.

I’m really happy that I’m still able to talk with people and get to the bottom of things and  I  am having a wonderful time working with MRG.

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