Rikki Klieman

Anchor 

Television anchor, legal analyst, trial attorney, actor and best-selling author, Rikki Klieman has earned a sterling reputation as one of the nation's most celebrated lawyers and legal authorities. A dynamic and versatile communicator, Klieman has found success in multiple fields, including television journalism, the courtroom, academia and public speaking.

An Anchor at the Courtroom Television Network since 1994 and a Legal Analyst for NBC's Today Show and E! Network's coverage of the Michael Jackson trial, Rikki relocated from New York to California to join her husband, Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton. She continues to inspire the lives of others with her autobiography, Fairy Tales Can Come True - How a Driven Woman Changed Her Destiny, released in May 2003 which reached the L.A. Times Best Seller List.

She remains Of Counsel to the Boston, Massachusetts law firm of Klieman, Lyons, Schindler & Gross where she specializes in criminal trial and appellate practice as well as civil litigation. She received her J.D. from Boston University School of Law in 1975. Prior to her legal career, she was a theater major at Northwestern University and became a professional actress. Following law school, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable Walter Jay Skinner of the United States District Court of Massachusetts, and as a prosecutor with the Middlesex and Norfolk County District Attorneys' offices. Before creating her own practice, she was a partner at Friedman & Atherton, a commercial law firm in Boston.

In 1983 she was named one of the five most outstanding women trial lawyers in the country by Time magazine. She is often the subject of magazine and newspaper articles and she was profiled by CNN. She has been interviewed on numerous radio and television programs on various aspects of criminal and civil law and procedure including, among others, 60 Minutes, The McLaughlin Group, 20/20 and a Nightline Special Report on rape hosted by Peter Jennings.

Ms. Klieman was a member of the Adjunct Faculty at Columbia Law School, teaching a course on Trial Strategies in Major Current Cases from 1996 to 2003. She was a Professor at Boston University School of Law where she taught trial practice for many years. She also lectures across the country on aspects of the legal system and has taught trial advocacy at Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College, the National Criminal Defense College, University of Virginia Trial Advocacy Institute, Western Trial Advocacy Institute, NorthwesternUniversity's Short Course for Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Intensive Trial Advocacy Program at Harvard.

She has published articles on criminal defense practice and contributed to a book, Women Trial Lawyers, published by Prentice Hall in 1987 as well as a book on drug law published in 1993. She writes the bi-annual supplement for Representing Witnesses Before Federal Grand Juries. She is currently co-editing a book on cross-examination called Take the Witness. In addition, she writes a column about legal issues for the popular LA Confidential Magazine.

She is featured in a chapter of Good Will Toward Men by Jack Kammer, published in 1994, and in the national best seller A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr.

Recently, she returned to her original career of acting when she portrays Cathy Burson, a lawyer for James Caan's hotel in NBC's Las Vegas. She also became Nora Rosenthal, a judge whose mother was murdered in NYPD Blue. In 2004, she portrayed Shannon, Rob Lowe's office manager, on Dr. Vegas. She also appeared as herself, a Court TV anchor, in the films The Cable Guy and An American Tragedy (based on the O.J. Simpson case). She appeared as a reporter in the film version of A Civil Action with John Travolta, a reporter on the television show The D.A., and as a lawyer in the film Fifteen Minutes with Robert DeNiro and Ed Burns. She is a member of SAG, AFTRA and Actors' Equity.

Ms. Klieman served on the Advisory Committee to the U.S. Supreme Court on the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Board of Visitors for Boston University School of Law. She was a member of the American Bar Association's National Conference of Lawyers and Representatives of the Media. She currently serves on the Council of 100 - a mentoring organization of outstanding alumnae for the benefit of collegiate women - at Northwestern University.

In addition, Ms. Klieman lectures to various business and bar associations as well as charitable and school groups on topics including "Visionary Leadership," "Law," "Politics and the Media," "Powerful Communication from the Courtroom to the Boardroom," "Theatre in the Courtroom," and "You Can Have It All, But Not All At The Same Time." She continues to comment on various legal and political issues.

In addition to Ms. Klieman's professional accomplishments, she has been active in her community. From her early days of raising money for City of Hope to her later days of raising funds and consciousness for Citymeals on Wheels, she believes in helping those most often in need -- children and the elderly. She donates her time to mentor collegiate women at Northwestern University and was an active mentor through the Diversity Committee at Court TV. She continues to teach lawyers throughout the country on a pro bono basis. She served on the Executive Board of the ADL (Anti Defamation League) in New York and New England. In Boston, she was also active with the ADL Civil Rights Division. One of her great joys was being a member of the Board of Directors of Shepherd House in Boston, a halfway house for women who suffered from substance abuse problems who were on the road to recovery.

She lives with her husband in Los Angeles where she pursues her passions of mentoring young people and joining in the fight against domestic violence -- work in which she has been active since the 1970s. She is now a member of the Board of Directors of the Rape Treatment Center of UCLA-Santa Monica and the Board of Directors of LA's Best, an after school enrichment program for disadvantaged elementary school children.