Alan Clark is one of New York's best examples of the tireless independent advocate for everyday people - a trial attorney who has also built one of most successful small practices on Long Island. The 52-year-old Bronx native who grew up in Westchester - the first lawyer in his family -- brings a true passion to his craft and an outlook borne of experience and hard work. Further, his views on individual rights and justice have sharpened over the years by his countless scrapes with bottom-line-oriented institutions, particularly insurance companies and corporations. He says it was childhood stories and movies that spurred him to the law - "a highly respected profession" - and he found important mentors early on. One law school professor - and first boss - was Manhattan trial attorney Alfred S. Julien of Julien & Schlesinger: "A shining example of what a good lawyer should be." For Clark there really was no alternative to courtroom work: "That's what being a lawyer is all about." Indeed, Clark has pursued plaintiff's trial law as though he's had much to prove: He launched in own practice when he was barely 27, confident of his business instincts. (Indeed, his undergrad degree was in business administration.) In the 80s he led a three-partner firm based in Mineola, which took on general personal-injury cases, workers compensation and, increasingly, medical malpractice cases. In 1985, Clark won $2.5 million for the family of a severely handicapped youth who received the wrong medication at a state institution; the decision, among several multi-million dollar awards, held up to multiple appeals. Four years later Clark represented a woman who'd been groped by Mike Tyson in a Manhattan nightclub - Clark recognized that the famed boxer was "just an out-of-control guy" long before his later assaults led to prison time. Fifteen years ago Clark moved his practice from lawyer-laden Mineola to the "true people's community" of Levittown - "the smartest thing I ever did for my practice -- there are no other lawyers here, people walk in and appreciate that you're there for them." Today Alan Clark & Associates, with four attorneys and located in second-floor offices of the CVS Shopping Center on Wantagh Avenue. As such his firm handles today scores of workers' compensation claims each year, as well personal injury and medical-malpractice cases. Clark and his wife Madeleine (a paralegal at the firm; they met as freshmen at the Univ. of Miami) live in Melville; they have two children, and their son Brandon recently completed law school and passed the New York State Bar exam. Clark is a lifelong musician (he plays the jazz saxophone and clarinet) and he's an avid Yankees fan and enjoys a round of golf.