Kirsten Clement an attorney at the law firm of Marks Gray, on the Southbank.
DOES MARKS GRAY OFTEN HIRE FRESH FACES?
“More so now. I don’t know that it was that way in the past. Just in the past few years there’s been myself, Giselle Carson and Michael Bittner that were hired right out of law school. In a couple of weeks, there will be another gentleman just coming out of law school that will be starting here.”
WHEN DID SHE JOIN
THE FIRM?
Last August.
HAS SHE WORKED IN ANY OTHER PROFESSIONS?
“No.”
IS THE JOB WHAT SHE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE?
“I clerked here in the summer of 2001 so I knew what to expect.”
WHEN WAS SHE ADMITTED TO THE FLORIDA BAR?
September 2002
WHY GO TO LAW SCHOOL?
“It has always interested me. That’s why I majored in English [for her bachelor’s degree] and minored in criminology.”
DO YOU PRACTICE
CRIMINAL LAW?
“No. Right now, I do mostly workers compensation. Before that I was helping out the partners doing personal injury work and getting exposure to different areas of law. In the workers comp area, we’re defending so we don’t have a lot of individual clients. There are a lot of insurance carriers and servicing agents that we represent.”
WHERE DID SHE GO
TO SCHOOL?
The University of Florida.
HOMETOWN
Babylon, N.Y.
TO FLORIDA?
“I moved down to the Keys when I was 12 with my mom and stepfather. He had retired and wanted to go somewhere exotic. He met my mom so we had to go someplace more practical. When I graduated high school, I moved to Gainesville.”
WEDDING BELLS
Clement married Bill, a non-practicing attorney, in June. He works at Pricewaterhousecoopers handling tax returns for large corporations. The couple live off Highway 210 near St. Augustine.
WHAT’S MOST REWARDING FOR HER?
“How much, especially working in litigation, you can learn. If you are handling a malpractice case, you learn a little bit about medicine. If you have any kind of construction litigation, you learn about construction. You can pick up a lot of information that you might not have learned if you did another type of work.”
WHAT IS HER BIGGEST CHALLENGE?
“Right out of law school, the challenge was learning the law and learning how to practice law. Most schools don’t teach you how to practice law; they teach you a bunch of theory. So what’s most challenging is learning to be lawyer and what to do to be a successful attorney.”
WHAT ADVICE WOULD SHE GIVE TO OTHER YOUNG LAWYERS?
“Find a firm you’re comfortable working at and working with the other associates and partners. It’s important to like who you work with; your workplace can make all the difference. Try to find an area of law you enjoy and pursue it. Don’t pigeonhole yourself right out of law school because then you won’t gain exposure to different areas of law. That can be a mistake sometimes because you won’t know what’s out there.”
MEMBERS ONLY
Clement is a member of the Jacksonville Area Defense Council, Jacksonville Bar Association and the Defense Research Institute.
FUN STUFF
To unwind, Clement enjoys reading suspense novels, murder mysteries and legal dramas. She and her husband like visiting the beach or the historic district of St. Augustine. She savors Mexican and Italian food equally. When it comes to television, her pick is “Friends.”
— by Monica Chamness