Law school turns 50
June 23-29, 2025
By Jay Edwards
Panel reflects during Bowen’s anniversary luncheon
A panel of UA Little Rock Bowen Law School alumni came together last week during the 127th Arkansas Bar Association Annual Meeting at the Oaklawn Resort in Hot Springs. The discussion was about the school’s past, present and future, and the speakers spanned 50 years, from Stark Ligon (’75) to Mallory Wood, who was part of this year’s graduating class. Also participating were State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Webb (‘82), Michelle Ator (‘95), Antwan Phillips (‘09) and Tamika Edwards (‘11). The event was moderated by Bud Cummins (‘89).
When the Arkansas Supreme Court established the Office of Ethics Counsel, Stark Ligon was named to head the office. He remembers beginning law school in Fayetteville and moving to Little Rock for work where he was able to complete his legal education by attending law school at night. Before 1975, the law school in Little Rock was a night division of the U of A Law School at Fayetteville.
Cummins asked Webb if she received any intangible benefits from her education at Bowen.
“I have the opportunity to speak with a lot of law school students,” she answered, “and I love telling them that for $350 a semester I could get a law degree and a husband.”
Webb is married to Doyle Webb, current chairman of the Arkansas Public Service Commission.
“We met while working at the Student Bar Association,” Webb said.
Michelle Ator is an attorney with the Friday firm. She said she is in Arkansas because she is an Air Force wife and spoke of how important it was for her that there was a law school in Little Rock.
“I was reflecting on what is the value of the law school,” she said. “ About why it’s important. My family discouraged me from going into law. My grandfather asked me to find something useful to do. He didn’t think lawyers were valid because they weren’t the people you would want to deal with. And so I was reflecting back if I have been useful? And I was thinking about my classmates. Some of them are rock stars. But everybody’s been useful. They’ve all been big contributors to our community. They’re new thinkers. They’re good on school boards, they’re good in business, they’re good in the law, and they take care of people when they’re hurting. It’s just a really cool profession. And I am so grateful that I was able to do this.”
Antwan Phillips is a partner at Wright Lindsey Jennings and serves on the City of Little Rock Board of Directors.
“The law school gave me the opportunity to really understand what it meant to be a lawyer,” Phillips said. “And I was very fortunate the law school believed in me and gave me the opportunity to learn. Between my junior and senior year of college, the law school offered a program called the pre-law undergraduate scholars program, that allowed me to take two law school classes. Once I finished, I thought, I can do this. There were a number of us who went through that program together, who started and finished law school here. There was no requirement that we go to Bowen after taking their classes, but all of us enjoyed the experience enough that we signed up and came back and went to law school here. And I know it’s happened to all of us but it’s weird now because some of those classmates are now judges and I walk into their courtroom and think, I could tell some stories about them.”
Tamika Edwards is the Director of Human Resources and Employee Engagement at Southwest Power Pool. She previously has served as a special advisor at Central Arkansas Water (CAW), the executive director of the Social Justice Institute at Philander Smith College.
“What comes to mind is in 2024, when my mother passed away,” she began. “We had to probate, go through this entire process. It was not only being able to recall all the terms, but also being able to connect with everything. And I think I remember so much of it because the professors really took the time to lecture.”
Ator echoed her colleague.
“There were some really great instructors. Honestly, our adjunct professors and the people who taught our trial skills are the best. I’ve worked for a lot of years on hiring at our law firm, and we are big fans of Bowen graduates. They have the background academically, but they also have sense about how to be lawyers.”
Mallory Wood owns the newest diploma from Bowen and after getting married the day after graduation began focusing on passing the Arkansas Bar Exam. She grew up in Utah and came to Little Rock to attend Bowen, because, she says, it offered her a great value.
“I came to Bowen because I got a great scholarship and because it’s one of the best debt to income ratio law schools. I graduated with half of the debt of the average law student. Bowen has a history of being an accessible law school, starting with the part-time program that brings in non-traditional students. And we are planning to implement an online program that will continue to allow underserved communities throughout Arkansas to get this quality legal education.”
Bud Cummins pointed out the increase of women to the profession and Ligon said that when he entered law school in Fayetteville in 1967, only five out of 100 in his class were women. He then recognized four women in attendance who are today’s leaders of the Arkansas Bar Association, President Kristin L. Pawlik, President-Elect Janie Huffman Jones, Immediate Past President Judge Margaret Dobson and President-Elect Designee, State Representative Carol Dalby.
“So these are the consecutive presidents of your state Bar Association,” Ligon said. “There was only one more lady in my entire starting class. And I happen to be seated next to a representative of a certain majority on the Arkansas Supreme Court. Justice Webb is one of four women out of seven justices. It has been a sea of change over the past 50 years.”
Dean Colin Crawford said during his closing remarks that when he meets alumni he likes to ask what their best and worst memory of law school is.
“Early in my tenure I asked a legal aid attorney that question,” Crawford said. “She told me her memory of the best and worst was the same thing, Terrence Cain. I asked her what she meant and she said, ‘I took every class he offered, but I was absolutely terrified of that man for every single minute. But in my practice, I always remember and apply things he taught me.’”
“I think for me, Crawford said, “that really capsulizes what so many of our faculty work to do.”
Photo caption:
1. Molly McNulty, director of development and external relations at the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law, makes some closing comments at a luncheon during the Arkansas Bar Association’s 127th Annual Meeting in Hot Springs on June 12, where panelists discussed the law school’s past present and future. Seated left to right are Stark Ligon, Justice Barbara Webb, Michelle Ator, Antwan Phillips, Tamika Edwards and Mallory Wood.
2. Retired judges Mary McGowan (left) and Joyce Warren.
Photo credit:
1. (Photo by Felisha Weaver)
2. (Photo by Felisha Weaver)
