Origin and Development of Clark Law Firm
Our firm was established on October, 2003, in Dallas, Texas, by Charles Clark. In 1982, Charles began his career as a summer intern at Bracewell & Patterson in Houston (now Bracewell & Giuliani), then the fourth largest firm in Texas. Only two years later he was recruited to return to Dallas to start the real estate practice at Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons (now Thompson Coe). In 1988, he joined a large, regional firm, then based in Dallas, Winstead Sechrest & Minick (now Winstead), where he practiced for 15 years.
Charles has practiced primarily transactional business law and commercial real estate law all of his career. On graduation from law school, he joined the prestigious Real Estate Section of Bracewell as an associate. While he obtained experience in mortgage lending, leasing and other positive real estate transactions, the oil and gas industry and real estate market in Houston soon turned downward and Charles learned early on how to workout problems among lenders and borrowers, equity investors and developers and other parties who become adverse in a negative business environment.
The real estate practice of Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons was founded in late 1984 by Charles and a law school classmate who had joined the firm directly out of law school. Together, they built the real estate practice into one of the fastest growing and most profitable areas of this primarily insurance defense firm. Charles handled many positive transactions in lending, leasing and development for his clients, but in 1986 a real estate downturn caused by changes in tax laws and some over-speculation and fraud began to occur in the real estate market. At that time, Charles was engage to represent the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC), and eventually the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), in the closing and liquidation of failed financial institutions.
As the problems in the real estate market continued to spread, Charles found himself unable to represent several of his lender, landlord and developer clients due to conflicts with the work he was performing for the FSLIC, RTC and FDIC. At the same time, Charles had several dealings with lawyers in the large and prestigious real estate practice of Winstead. Over a three year courtship, Charles eventually agreed to join Winstead in order to take advantage of opportunities to represent these other clients. As the problems in the real estate market continued to spread across the country, Charles and a colleague opened a Washington, D.C. office for Winstead and a new consulting affiliate of Winstead called WINCO Asset Services, Inc. During his four-years in D.C., the firm's office grew to 15 lawyers, all practicing in real estate or practice areas supporting real estate. In addition to handling real estate problems of clients, while in D.C. Charles developed a thriving lending, leasing and development practice. One of the highlights of his practice was the purchase by a client of a large ($300m) problem loan portfolio, to his knowledge the first such portfolio sold by an institutional lender.
On his return to the Dallas office of Winstead in 1994, Charles rebuilt there an active lending, leasing and development practice, while working on some special projects. He represented an NFL franchise in the development and leasing of its new stadium. He also represented a governmental entity in the development of a large multi-purpose stadium and prepared the wish list for the owner of another NFL franchise to be used in negotiations with governments for the site of a stadium. Charles also represented the purchaser of the fixed-base operations at a local airport.
Law firms are dynamic organisms that change over time. Some changes are positive and some can be negative. It became apparent to Charles that he should open his own firm where he would not be subject to fewer changes outside of his control. This led to a parting of ways with Winstead and the establishment of our firm. It was successful from the first day it opened. We have maintained our size in order to retain the characteristics that differentiate our firm from other firms.
What Is Different About Clark Law Firm?
Experience. We share the same level of experience in the commercial real estate arena as any major law firm. Our attorneys have been involved in virtually every significant type of real estate transaction. (See the Representative Transactions)
Personal Attention. Because of the size of our firm, each client is important and gets a greater level of personal attention. The success and happiness of the client is very important to us.
Efficiency. Our clients get more efficient representation for their money. The clients are not passed off to other attorneys. There are no high-paid figureheads in our firm. All of our attorneys are hard-working, first-chair lawyers. There is no double billing for conferences between attorneys or for multiple attorneys doing the work of one attorney. Our overhead is lower and, as a result, our rates for services are well below the rates of larger law firms.
