Charlene Matlock

Charlene Matlock is a fictional character on the television show, "Matlock". Played by Linda Purl, Charlene Matlock is the daughter of Ben Matlock and is also a lawyer. She assisted her father at his law practice in Atlanta for a short time, appearing only in the first season of the series. Purl replaced Lori Lethin who appeared as Charlene in the pilot " [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090943/ Diary of a Perfect Murder] ".

Legal practice

Charlene Matlock worked in Atlanta with her father, Ben Matlock for a year before pursuing her own legal career. During that year, Charlene had a big case in Miami when her father was accused of jury tampering (The People vs. Matlock), and flew back to Atlanta to defend him. He had already gotten Julie March to defend him however, and he asked her to be the one thing no one else could be - his caring daughter.

When she and her father were defending Brad Bingham for murder, she investigated Caryn Nelson, who said she spent all of five minutes with Brad, who began undressing in her hotel room; she said she came to her senses and told him to leave after five minutes. Charlene didn't question her story, which later proved to be a frame-up of Charlene's client, because a friend of Charlene's, Ellen Hawley, was involved with Brad Bingham, and attempted to do something to herself after he left her. After she returned to Caryn's hotel room with her father for further questioning, and found it empty, she realized Caryn was lying and trying to frame her client. She had let her preconceptions of Brad (The Seduction) get in the way; she later found out that Brad had tried calling her friend Ellen.

Trivia

*Charlene was once put on a food group diet by her nutritionist (though this may simply have been a way for her to get her father to take a case) (The Chef).
*Charlene pronounced tomato in the British fashion.
*She called her father "old timer" when he told her about being at the Super Bowl when Brad Bingham threw a 60-yard touchdown pass (The Seduction).