Now is the time.

The ABA Retirement Funds Program (“Program”) is an employer-sponsored retirement plan designed specifically to address the retirement needs of the legal community. The Program is structured to provide affordable pricing whether you are a sole practitioner or a large corporate firm.

We have leveraged our size to bring together some of the most respected financial services providers in the retirement industry. Through the unique culture created between the ABA Retirement Funds Program and our Program partners we aspire to help every law firm, lawyer, and legal professional secure their financial future.

The ABA Retirement Funds Program is available through the Arkansas Bar Association as a member benefit. Please read the Program Annual Disclosure Document (April 2022) carefully before investing. This Disclosure Document contains important information about the Program and investment options. For email inquiries, contact us at: joinus@abaretirement.com. Registered representative of and securities offered through Voya Financial Partners, LLC (member SIPC). Voya Financial Partners is a member of the Voya family of companies (“Voya”). Voya, the ABA Retirement Funds, and the Arkansas Bar Association are separate, unaffiliated entities, and not responsible for one another’s products and services.

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ArkBar's Past Presidents Met for Dinner

ArkBar's Past Presidents met for a dinner on February 9, 2023, at YaYa's Bistro in Little Rock. left to right back row: Brian Rosenthal (2019-20), Ron Harrison (2000-01), Jim Sprott (2006-07), Tony Hilliard (2017-18), Jim Julian (2010-11), Eddie Walker (2015-16), Judge Billy Roy Wilson (1984-85), Lamar

ArkBar's Mid Year 2.0 was a Success!

ArkBar hosted its Mid-Year meeting at the Aloft Hotel in Little Rock February 8-10, 2023. The meeting “Mid Year 2.0” featured three days of continuing legal education (CLE) with a focus on the transactional tracks—tax law, probate and trust and elder law. Thank you to all of speakers, planners, attendees, sponsors and exhibitors for making the meeting a success!

• Silver Sponsor: Simmons Bank Private Wealth

• Tax Law Track Sponsor : Lax, Vaughan, Fortson, Rowe & Threet, P.A.

• Young Lawyers Section hosted a reception on February 9 at the Flying Saucer in Little Rock

• Tax Law Planners: Nicole Gore, Rose Law Firm; Wade Bowen, Mitchell Williams, PLLC; Hannah Van Horn, RMP LLP

• Probate & Trust Law Planners: Katie Watson Bingham, Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP; David Bingham, Mitchell Williams, PLLC; Robert B. Beach, Lax, Vaughan, Fortson, Rowe & Threet, PA.

• Elder Law Planners: Laura Johnson, Cross, Gunter Witherspoon & Galchus, P.C.; Trae Norton, RMP LLP; Ashley Stepps, Rippy, Stepps & Associates

Coffee Chats

We enjoyed visiting with everyone at the statewide Coffee Chats. Thank you to everyone who participated to help us learn how to provide more value to our members. Thank you to Membership Value Task Force Chair Jamie Jones for hosting the chats!

Accolades

Steven W. Quattlebaum of Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC was installed as National President of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Cynthia Nance, dean of the U of A School of Law, received the Association of American Law Schools Section on Women in Legal Education’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg Lifetime Achievement Award. Carolyn Witherspoon, Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus, P.C. received the American Bar Foundation’s Distinguished Life Fellow Award. McDaniel Wolff, PLLC, announced that partner Dustin McDaniel received the 2022 Francis X. Bellotti Award from the National Association of Attorneys General in Washington, D.C.

Appointments And Elections

The Arkansas Supreme Court selected Kyle Burton as Clerk of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. Judge Cindy Thyer and Judge Wendy Wood began their term on the Arkansas Court of Appeals on January 1, 2023. John D. Flynn was elected Mayor of Bella Vista in December for a four-year term starting January 1.

Word About Town

Andrea G. Woods has joined Vestas – American Wind Technology as Corporate Counsel, Legal Offshore. McDaniel Wolff, PLLC announced the appointment of Jim Phillips to Partner and Brittany Webb to Litigation Associate. Cross, Gunter, Witherspoon & Galchus, P.C. announced Ross E. Simpson has joined the firm as an Associate Attorney. The Board of Directors of Hilburn & Harper, Ltd., Attorneys at Law, announced that Sara Cate Moery has been elected into partnership. Wright Lindsey Jennings announced Quinten J. Whiteside as its new chief operating officer. The firm also announced that two attorneys have been elected into partnership: Nicholas D. Hornung and Jessica Pruitt Koehler Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC announced that Sarah Keith-Bolden and Scott M. Lar have become managing members of the law firm and Meredith M. Causey and Philip A. Elmore have been named members. The firm also announced that Aaron C. Cochran has joined the law firm as an associate. Rose Law Firm announced the creation of Rose Group Advisors, a new business strategy and corporate development firm, in partnership with Little Rock attorney Chad Causey and former Arkansas State Representative Joe Jett. Hall Booth Smith, P.C. announced that Dalton Huerkamp joined the firm as an associate in its Rogers office. Matthews, Campbell, Rhoads, McClure & Thompson, P.A. in Rogers announced that Mallory A. Sanders and Mason Reynolds have joined the firm. Friday, Eldredge & Clark announced Taylor A. Stockemer and Kael K. Bowling as their 2023 Partner Election. The firm also announced that Kat Hodge joined the firm as Senior Counsel in the Labor and Employment Litigation Practice Group.

Kristin Pawlik elected the new ArkBar President-Elect Designee

The Arkansas Bar Association (ArkBar) is pleased to announce Kristin L. Pawlik as the new President-Elect Designee. Pawlik, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was elected without opposition at the close of nominations on January 31, 2023. Kristin is a partner at Miller, Butler, Schneider, Pawlik & Rozzell, PLLC in Northwest Arkansas. She litigates family law, criminal defense, and employment matters, primarily in Northwest Arkansas. A native of Bentonville, she obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas and her Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas School of Law.

ArkBar honored Kristin with a Golden Gavel award last year for her work as co-chair of the 2022 Annual Meeting and a Golden Gavel Award in 2017 for her work as chair of the Legislation Committee. She has been elected to serve ArkBar District A as a Trustee, and previously served on ArkBar’s Board of Governors and the House of Delegates. In 2017, she was chosen to represent the Arkansas Bar Association on the Arkansas Access to Justice Foundation Board where she continues to work for access to legal services for low-income Arkansans. Kristin is certified to represent the best interests of children as a domestic relations Attorney Ad litem and regularly accepts felony criminal conflict appointments from the Public Defender Commission. She was appointed by both Governor Mike Beebe and Governor Asa Hutchinson to serve as Chair of the Arkansas Commission on Child Abuse, Rape and Domestic Violence. She is a past President of the Benton County Bar Association, as well as a member of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association and the Arkansas Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Kristin is immediate past chair of the University of Arkansas Law Alumni Society and an alumna of Delta Delta Delta Sorority. Kristin and her husband, Aaron Holmes, are the parents of three boys, and they attend St. Joseph Catholic Church in Fayetteville.

Kristin joins the Association’s leadership track composed of President Joe Kolb, President-Elect Margaret Dobson and Immediate Past President Bob Estes. She will assume the office of President-Elect at the June 2023 Annual Meeting.

An association health plan designed for Arkansas law firms.

Introducing the Members Health Plan (MHP), an association-based, multiple employer, self-funded health benefits trust designed specifically for law firms.

Through the MHP, firms just like yours are combined together, pooling their risk as one large group—thus reducing costs and expanding access to a wider variety of health plan benefits.

Learn more, speak to a benefits counselor, and request a free quote for your firm today.

memberbenefits.com/arkbar