- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

Law degree helps lawyer-turned-reporter land network job

Janea Snyder — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 12:36:15 +0000

A law degree has opened many doors for ��Vlog��ý Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law alumna Chanley Painter, who has worked as a deputy prosecutor, a private practice attorney, and for the past year as a multimedia journalist for Little Rock’s KARK-TV Channel 4. Painter, who is a former Miss Arkansas-USA, starts a new job in February as a legal correspondent for , which launches May 1. All but one of her colleagues at her new workplace have law degrees. “It has certainly opened doors,” she said. “You have more to bring to the table because you have a law degree plus years of practice experience.” In her new job, Painter will travel the nation, covering court cases from start to finish. “This job combines all of my personal interests in one, and I am able to use my law degree,” she said. Painter earned an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Central Arkansas, and then she enrolled in the concurrent degree program offered by ��Vlog��ý Little Rock’s Bowen School of Law and the University of Arkansas’s . In four years, she earned both a Juris Doctor with high honors from Bowen and a Master of Public Service from the Clinton School. “I’ve always liked school. I’m kind of nerdy that way,” she joked. “My strengths as a student were always history, reading, and writing. When I was growing up, most kids watched cartoons. I watched Matlock. I knew I wanted to go to law school. It was a natural fit for me.” Scholarships paid for much of Painter’s graduate education. She also applied for Law Review at the Bowen School of Law and was accepted to the Editorial Board, which provided an additional scholarship. “It’s a very affordable law school, and I’m so thankful I was able to graduate debt-free,” she said. Painter, who is a state fiddle champion, traveled to Nashville quite often throughout school and was unsure if she wanted to move to Nashville or stay in Arkansas. After graduating, she passed both the Arkansas and Tennessee bar exams and is licensed to practice law in both states. Then, one of Painter’s former classmates had a case in Cleburne County, and Painter attended to observe the courtroom proceedings where she met many attorneys, including the county prosecutor at the time. That meeting led to a mentorship, and in early 2012, Painter became deputy prosecuting attorney for the . Painter worked as a deputy prosecutor until 2016, the year a TV opportunity came her way. The news director at KARK 4 and FOX 16 asked Painter to serve as a legal analyst, starting with the week-long trial for the murder of realtor Beverly Carter. “I would work to translate the courtroom lingo into what my audience could understand,” she said. “It was rewarding to use my degree in a way which helped educate people as to what was happening.” Painter already had some on-camera experience with modeling and acting, and she quickly learned how to find stories, operate the camera, and write and edit stories. In January 2018, she was hired full-time as a multimedia journalist for KARK 4 and Fox 16. All the time she worked in TV, she continued her private practice as time allowed, working on cases mostly involving family law and estate planning. In November 2018, the call from Court TV came. “I sent them some of my clips, and they flew me to Atlanta for an interview and offered me a job,” she said. Did she accept the offer right away? Of course not. “I wanted to see the contract,” she said. “As a lawyer, you take that way of thinking with you in every part of your life.” For her new position, Painter will travel around the U.S. and cover trials “gavel to gavel.” “Even if I wasn’t on Court TV, I’d be watching it,” said Painter, who likes to watch true crime shows. She hasn’t ruled out the possibility of practicing law again one day. “Because I have my law degree, I can always come back to Arkansas and join a firm or have a private practice,” she said. “It’s a skill I can make a living with no matter what the economy is like; people will always need lawyers.” Photo Courtesy of Chanley Painter

From Colonel to Counsel: Air Force veteran starts second career in law

Janea Snyder — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 22:24:08 +0000

Lawyering runs in William “Goose” Changose’s family. His grandfather was an attorney, and his father went to law school. Changose liked law too, but law school would have to wait a few years. “After high school, I wanted to fly planes,” he said. In 1983 he graduated from the Air Force Academy, was commissioned as an officer, and then went to pilot training. For the next 23 years, he moved 16 times to bases across the U.S. and overseas. He spent lots of time in Little Rock, Japan, and the Philippines as well as Saudi Arabia and Iraq. He retired in 2006 as a colonel and commander of Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, Hawaii. Along the way, he earned a Bachelor of Science in economics from the U.S. Air Force Academy, an MBA from Golden Gate University, and a Master of Science in strategic planning from the Air War College. While law school still intrigued him, it was never the right time or place. “I was always in places where either the tuition was too high or the scheduling was impossible,” he said. “In 2005, my daughter started eighth grade in Hawaii. It was her sixth school, and she asked if she could go to the same high school for four years in a row.” He told her “Yes,” and knew it was time to retire from the military. The New York native was fortunate to get a job at Alltel Wireless and moved his family to Little Rock, where he discovered the William H. Bowen School of Law. Bowen has the state’s only part-time Juris Doctor program, which allows students to attend evening classes Monday through Thursday.

William “Goose” Changose, Jennifer Glover, and Jarred Kibbey were classmates in William H. Bowen School of Law’s part-time program, and now they work together at Natural State Law in Little Rock.

Changose enrolled in fall 2011, attending classes at night and working during the day as chief executive officer of Westrock Coffee Roasting. “While I was working for Westrock Coffee, tidbits of law would show up,” he said. “As CEO, I looked at contracts. My legal education was handy long before I even became a full-fledged lawyer.” Changose completed his law degree in 2015. “Bowen was a great experience for me,” he said. “From the first day I walked in, I liked it.” After law school, he continued working at Westrock, and fellow Bowen grad Jarred Kibbey was there too. “In the summer of 2017, we were working long days and producing a lot of coffee,” Changose recalled. “It was rewarding, but it didn’t fit with my long-term plan. One night I said to Jarred, ‘We have law degrees. Why don’t we open up a law firm?’ And Jarred said ‘Ok.’” That was the start of , which opened on May 1, 2018, with offices at 900 S. Shackleford Road in Little Rock. Changose and Kibbey were friends with Jennifer Glover, another Bowen classmate. She was already working at another law firm, but they convinced her to join them. As non-traditional students, each of the three attorneys had significant professional experience in diverse areas and have developed expertise in diverse areas of law. Changose focuses his practice on business law, veterans’ benefits, real estate zoning, aviation, and firearms law. Kibbey’s practice areas also include business law, veterans’ benefits, and firearms law as well as insurance, employment law, and HIPAA-related issues. Before law school, Kibbey had served as the senior policy advisor to the Arkansas Department of Health and as senior healthcare advisor to Gov. Asa Hutchinson. He has a Bachelor of Science in political science from UCA, a certificate in bioethics and health policy from Loyola University Chicago, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Glover had worked eight years as a paralegal for a family law firm before law school. She also had been a caseworker for the Division of Children and Family Services, where she experienced firsthand the value of competent legal representation for children and families. Her practice areas include family law, probate, adoption, guardianship, estate planning, and small business-related issues. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice from ��Vlog��ý Little Rock before attending Bowen School of Law. All three attorneys are members of the Arkansas Bar Association and the Pulaski County Bar Association. The team is already putting into practice one of Bowen’s core values of creating access to justice. Most of the state’s lawyers work in Pulaski County and in Washington County in northwest Arkansas while rural state residents often lack convenient access to a lawyer. Kibbey applied for and was accepted into Bowen’s Rural Practice Incubator Project, which provides support to Bowen alumni who start law practices in rural, underserved Arkansas communities. Kibbey had grown up in Glenwood, a small town of about 2,500 residents south of Hot Springs. Natural State Law now has an office in Glenwood, and the three attorneys take turns staffing the office two days a week. “We’re getting more and more clients,” Changose said. “People come to us with problems, and we’re finding that we’re able to do a lot of good.” For Changose, the timing was perfect for the new venture. “The coffee business was running smoothly with record revenue and profits, and both of my daughters had graduated from college,” he said. “There are very few times in life when you get a chance to make a big change without the risk of ruin. This was a chance to do something I’d always wanted to do.” Top photo right: William “Goose” Changose found a second career as an attorney after his 23-year military career. Photos by Benjamin Krain

ACE President Courtney Little credits law school education with giving him confidence to face life’s problems

Ajani Oyindamola — Wed, 05 Dec 2018 14:05:51 +0000

With his unique background in law, business, and construction, Courtney Little serves an invaluable role as owner, president, and general counsel of.�� With his experience in construction and real estate law, Little, a graduate of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, said he has become a “source of information for construction people who need legal help.” He enjoys serving his community and is the current president of the American Subcontractors Association, a former member of the ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Foundation Board, and a former member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at Bowen. “People need advice, and I have the unique skill set of being a contractor and a lawyer as well,” he said. “I often do 10 or 12 public engagements a year, and the reason they like me to speak is because I am a normal business guy who knows the law. It’s easier to follow my thought process.” Little considers himself a bit of a nomad when it comes to schools, citing the 17 different schools he attended growing up, including four colleges and law school, as evidence of his travels. While earning his bachelor’s degree, Little attended four schools in four years, including more than a year as a student at ��Vlog��ý Little Rock. Little graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1995 with a Bachelor of Science in business management with a focus on finance. Even though his friends encouraged him to go to law school, Little said his head just wasn’t into law school at the time. He went on to have a successful career. He worked as the liaison between inside sales and architectural sales for U.S. Aluminum in Texas before returning to ACE in 1997. He then opened the Northwest Arkansas branch for ACE in 1998. Little made the decision to pursue law school after a near brush with tragedy in his family. “After 9/11, I said life is short,” he said. “My brother was supposed to have lunch in the area of the World Trade Center on that day, but everything happened that morning so instead, he was in a nearby building where he could see it all. We talked and asked ourselves, ‘What have you not done that you regret?’ I always wanted to attend law school, but my head wasn’t into it right after college. The more I thought about it and prayed about it, I knew it was time.” He enrolled at Bowen in 2002, where he earned a Juris Doctor with Honors in 2004. “Part of my decision to attend Bowen was location,” Little said. “We had just moved back to Little Rock, and I was still running the northwest office for ACE. It was better for our family to stay in Little Rock, and I also liked the practical focus of Bowen.” Attending law school in Little Rock also gave Little the opportunity to gain clerkships that would be valuable to his future law career. “I would say something that I would definitely recommend to others is the local clerking opportunities,” he said. “I got to clerk at four of the largest law firms in the state because I was in Little Rock. I had the criteria they wanted, and was local and available. That was a huge bonus for me. It still pays off today getting to know all the people I did during my clerkships.” In addition to the relationships he made as a law clerk, Little also credits the teaching style of Bowen professors for allowing him to make good long-term relationships with his professors and fellow students in law school. “I had great relationships with the professors,” Little said. “There is a unique camaraderie between the students and professors. It is more like a colleague educating you on the law. It felt more like job training and I really enjoy that kind of atmosphere. I still have a lot of really great friendships and business relationships from school. I considered everyone on campus a friend, from the librarians all the way up to the dean. It is a very relationship-driven school. It’s like going to school with friends and family.” After graduating from Bowen, Little opened a private practice. A unique opportunity became available when a deal to buy his family’s company, ACE, fell through. “Right before closing, there was a dispute over some key items, and they terminated the deal,” Little said. “I asked my dad, ‘What is plan B?’ When I was watching that transaction, I saw that it was a great business opportunity. I wanted to improve on the foundation my dad had already built.” Little closed his private practice in 2008 when he purchased ACE and was named president and general counsel. His parents started the business in 1986. While originally just a construction company, ACE is now three companies with the addition of ACE Glass Manufacturing and ACE Glass Recycling. Under Little’s leadership, the company continues to improve and look for the latest technological innovations on the horizon. “We are already the largest glass company in the state. Now, we are moving more into manufacturing and automated processes,” Little said. “New team members are hard to find in the current job market. We are partnering with prison ministries for citizens who are trying to return to the workforce. We are also creating some new ways to recover glass, and our long-term goal is to make products out of that glass in the state. We will solve a problem and create new jobs and revenues at the same time. In the next few years, we will also be bringing some new technologies to the market. People bring us interesting glass technologies and problems that need solving, so we will get the opportunity to launch some new glass technologies in the next few years, and that is pretty cool.” Little credits his law education with teaching him the skills necessary to handle any situation. “Being a lawyer teaches you what questions to ask, what to learn, and how to figure things out,” Little said. “The law covers everything. It guides my personal and business decisions. The law explains life. When you walk into a meeting knowing what the rules are, it gives you a different level of confidence. You have the confidence to say, ‘This is the issue, and this is what we need to do.’ I learned a lot of that in law school. Whatever you do as a business owner or employee, a law school education is very diverse and gives you a foundation to do whatever you want to do and works well with whatever skills you already have.” Little and his wife Erika live in Little Rock with their son, Reagan, and daughter, Ella. In the upper right photo, Bowen Law School graduate Courtney Little, owner, president, and general counsel of ACE Glass in Little Rock, stands in a two-acre solar array that supplies power to the business. Photo by Ben Krain.

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Graduate School hosts open house for prospective students

Janea Snyder — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 21:47:12 +0000

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock Graduate School will host two events on Thursday, Oct. 4, for prospective students to learn more about graduate programs available in Little Rock. The “Explore Grad Programs in the Rock” event includes a mid-day event from 11 a.m.-1 p.m., and an after-work event from 5-7 p.m. Both events will be at the Jack Stephens Center, located at University Avenue and 28th Street in Little Rock. Attendees will be able to talk with ��Vlog��ý Little Rock Graduate School professors and advisors from the university’s five colleges, along with representatives from the William H. Bowen School of Law, the , and E-Learning. Both admissions and financial aid representatives will be on-site to assist. Free parking, food, beverages and door prizes will be available. More information and registration information is available ��Vlog��ý Little Rock offers a wide variety of graduate-level programs, many of which are available online. The university awards master and doctoral degrees, the Juris Doctor, graduate certificates and the Education Specialist.

- University News Archive - ����Vlog��ý Little Rock

Law degree helps lawyer-turned-reporter land network job

From Colonel to Counsel: Air Force veteran starts second career in law

ACE President Courtney Little credits law school education with giving him confidence to face life’s problems

����Vlog��ý Little Rock Graduate School hosts open house for prospective students

- University News Archive - ��Vlog��ý Little Rock

��Vlog��ý Little Rock Graduate School hosts open house for prospective students