Clark studied Law at Queens' College Cambridge from 1968 to 1972, obtaining his BA degree in 1971 and LLM in 1972. He became a Solicitor of the Supreme Court in 1975, serving Articles of Clerkship with Andrew & Co, Solicitors of Lincoln and was an assistant solicitor to that firm until his appointment as lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol in 1977. Clark became a Visiting Lecturer in Law at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand in 1985. Promoted Reader in 1990, he was subsequently promoted to Professor of Law in the University of Bristol in 1995. He served as Head of the Department of Law for three years from 1997–2000 and was Dean of the Faculty of Law from 2001–2003 and Dean of Law in 2003–04 on the merger of the Faculties of Social Sciences and Law. He was appointed a Pro Vice-Chancellor in 2005, with responsibility for Personnel and took up the newly established role of Deputy Vice-Chancellor in 2008. Clark has specialised in Commercial Property Law and written extensively in the law of Landlord and Tenant and Commonhold. He was responsible for the Boundaries and Commonhold titles in Halsbury's Laws of England. Clark was a member of the Department of Constitutional Affairs Commonhold Consultation Group. He was also part a group advising the Law Commission on the reform of the law of easements and covenants. He is a co-editor of the Common Law World Review. Since 1996, Clark has been a legal Chairman for the Residential Property Tribunal Service and was a consultant solicitor with Osborne Clarke from 1988 - 2009. Clark was a school governor of Westbury Park Primary School in Bristol for four years and a Governor at Cotham School in Cotham for seven years, including a period as Chair of Governors.
Curriculum Vitae
Education
State Primary Schools and The Lincoln School, Lincoln 1961-1968
Visiting Lecturer, SPACE, University of Hong Kong, 1986, and annually from 1995–2004, for 2 weeks a year
1988–2009. Commercial property law consultant, Osborne Clarke, Solicitors, Bristol
1997-continues. Legal Chairman Rent Assessment Committees and Leasehold Valuation Tribunals
2000–2006, member of the Department of Constitutional Affairs Commonhold Consultation Groups, assessing and then monitoring the implementation of the new law of Commonhold
2002–2010. One of two academic members of the advisory committee to the Law Commission on the reform of easements.
Governor of Cotham Grammar School, 1992–2000, Vice Chair of Governors, 1994–1996, Chair of Governors, 1996–1997. Trustee of Redland Chapel Charitable Trust.
Clarke purchased Bark at 'Ee, part of the Gromit Unleashed sculpture collection, for £20,000. The oversized stuffed dog is displayed at the Willis Memorial Building on the Bristol University campus.
