He has defended killers, rapists, drug addicts and drunken drivers.

And he has been jailed for speeding, driving under the influence of marijuana, contempt of court and, most recently, for allegedly trading legal services for drugs.

He has also been accused of encouraging criminal defendants to lie in court.

Despite his brushes with the law, Clark has not shied from the spotlight. Instead, he has continued to flaunt his self-styled reputation as a bulldog defense attorney.

Friend and fellow attorney Roy Cole said Clark has cultivated the "bad-boy persona."

"And I don't see a whole lot of good coming out of that bad-boy persona," Cole added.

Clark recently expanded his business by opening a law office in Salt Lake City, and freeway billboards continue to advertise his defense style as "aggressive."

His Internet Web site - complete with video clips in Spanish and Russian - features a steely eyed Clark promising "a tough defense for a tough offense."

Clark also warns that a felony conviction means the loss of the right to vote and bear arms "and, most importantly, their standing in the community."

Arrested this month during a drug-sting operation, Clark may have lost his own community standing - and perhaps much more.

Second-degree felony charges filed in 2nd District Court accuse the 38-year-old North Ogden resident of trading legal services for methamphetamine.

In addition to criminal penalties, Clark could be disbarred for committing a criminal act that reflects adversely on his trustworthiness or fitness as a lawyer.

Three years ago, Clark narrowly avoided suspension by the Utah State Bar. His latest troubles could bring disbarment.

Some attorneys say privately that the bar should have acted sooner.

The drug sting occurred Nov. 12, when Clark allegedly gave $100 to one of his clients - referred to as a confidential police informant in court documents - to purchase methamphetamine. Clark also allegedly told the man that he would erase his outstanding legal debt.

Clark was arrested by the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force when he met the informant at a North Ogden grocery store to collect the drugs, which police found on the floor of his car, according to the charges.

Clark then consented to a search of his home, where police allegedly found a metal plate in his bathroom, on which Clark said there was "meth residue," according to court documents.

He is scheduled for arraignment Dec. 30 before Judge Parley Baldwin.

That same day, Clark also will appear on a second-degree felony count of giving false or inconsistent statements in court. In June, Clark allegedly lied in Ogden's small claims court in a pay dispute with a former secretary.

Shortly after his release from jail two weeks ago, Clark reportedly checked himself into a residential treatment center. The Salt Lake Tribune has been unable to reach him for comment.

Some colleagues say they have recently seen Clark behaving oddly. They say he has acted inappropriately during court hearings by talking loudly, interrupting others and forgetting what he was about to say or do.

A lot of it may have to do with the inherent stress of the job, said prominent Ogden defense attorney John Caine, who knows Clark.

"Somebody's freedom is at stake," he says. "You're dealing with people's lives. You have a lot of responsibility."

Richard Uday, director of Lawyers Helping Lawyers, an assistance program for Utah State Bar members, said attorneys and judges have nearly twice the substance abuse rate of the general public, four times the depression and five times the rate of suicide.

Uday blames the higher rates, in part, on the confrontational nature of the job, where the goal often is to tear down the other side.

That view of attorneys is perpetuated by clients who don't necessarily seek out the most competent attorney. "They want someone to kick the opposing counsel's butt," Uday said.

From the get-go, Clark has been brash, confrontational and in-your-face.

A Las Vegas native, Clark graduated from the University of Utah's law school and was admitted to the Utah bar in October 1995.

At the time, he was on probation for a confrontation with a University of Utah police officer. The felony crime was reduced to a class A misdemeanor charge of threatening to use a dangerous weapon in a fight.

Eighteen months after joining the bar, Clark burst onto Utah's legal scene by representing Ogden rape suspect Jason Brett Higgins.

Based on a palm print, Higgins was charged in February 1997 with raping and robbing a Newgate Mall clerk. But the charges were dropped a day later because the palm print failed to match Higgins.

Clark immediately held a news conference during which he threatened a lawsuit and lambasted investigators for jumping to conclusions.

But a month later, Higgins was charged with attacks on six other women - and this time the allegations were bolstered by DNA evidence.

Eventually accused of raping nine women and girls, Higgins pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years to life.

But even as Higgins admitted being a serial rapist, he blamed Clark for ruining his chances to explore a legitimate defense based on mental illness. Higgins claimed Clark had told him to "act crazy," a ruse that backfired when discovered by two mental-health experts.

And a month before that February 1998 sentencing hearing, Higgins accused Clark of striking him in the chest with an open hand during a heated argument at the Weber County Jail.

That same year, two other clients accused him of misconduct that resulted in felony charges of perjury and witness tampering.

A man who killed his month-old daughter claimed Clark had urged him and his wife to lie about police conduct so a judge would throw out a videotaped confession.

An animal-rights activist who tried to set fire to a fur company claimed Clark told him to concoct an alibi.

Charged with class B misdemeanor assault for slapping Higgins, Clark was acquitted during a one-day bench trial. Saying there were too many factual inconsistencies to convict Clark, the judge stopped short of declaring the attorney innocent.

Clark was also tried for perjury and witness tampering for allegedly recruiting animal rights activist Trev Poulsen's girlfriend to lie about his whereabouts the night of the fur company arson attempt.

Poulsen testified that Clark seemed obsessed with fame and with beating Weber County prosecutors in court.

But Clark's defense attorney, Michael Martinez, won an acquittal by convincing jurors that Poulsen was a "nut case," a "weasel" and a "devious liar."

Clark's next batch of trouble came in 2001, when the state Office of Professional Conduct accused him of a number of serious lapses in judgment, including negligently referring to other sexual behavior by the alleged victim during a rape trial.

Clark had also engaged in "inappropriate behavior" with a female client and failed to act with reasonable diligence and promptness regarding the cases of a handful of other clients, according to civil charges filed by the Office of Professional Conduct.

In a stipulated discipline order, Clark admitted the allegations, avoiding a six-month suspension of his law license.

During a murder trial in April 2002, Clark intentionally ripped a shirt - a key piece of evidence - in full view of the jury. Clark also ignored 2nd District Judge Ernie Jones' orders to the contrary by twice mentioning that a trace of cocaine was found in the blood of the murder victim.

At the trial's end, the judge called Clark "a bull in a china shop" and jailed him for 30 days.

In March of this year, Clark was charged in Davis County with a third-degree felony of evading police and several marijuana-related misdemeanors after he was stopped while speeding through a construction zone near Kaysville.

The evading crime was later reduced to a misdemeanor and Clark pleaded guilty to that charge, as well as driving with a measurable amount of marijuana in his system, possession of marijuana and driving on a revoked license. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail with work release.

In June, Clark was booked into jail for speeding and driving on a suspended license after police clocked his motorcycle going 120 mph on Interstate 15 near Riverdale. He was fined $1,390.

One Ogden-area attorney says Clark's decision to become known as a "very aggressive" attorney ultimately backfired on him, alienating him from judges, prosecutors and police officers.

Said Cole, "He's a decent guy, he's quite talented and he does a good job. When he's on his game, he's on his game. But he makes bad choices.

"Whatever the ghosts are that are plaguing him, I hope he figures them out."