Megan Wells leads new year at PCBA
August 12-18, 2024
By Jay Edwards
The windows from her office at the Hilburn and Harper law firm in the US Bank building in downtown North Little Rock give the new president of the Pulaski County Bar Association, Megan Wells, panoramic views of the Little Rock skyline and beyond. As we looked out across the river, I mentioned that I had known Ernest “Ernie” Harper well, having grown up close to his family in North Little Rock. Harper passed away in February of 2023.
“This was actually his office,” Wells said. “He was such a great guy and we shared two passions in life, travel and food. Those were our favorite conversations and we spent a lot of hours talking about the two. But when the subject changed to music, I couldn’t keep up with him.”
Pressing her a little about travel, Megan said one of her last big trips was in September of last year, when she traveled with her mother and some close friends to the country of Croatia on the coast of the Adriatic Sea.
“It was kind of a fluke the way it came about,” Wells said. “My best friend’s birthday was coming up and we had seen that a lot of people had been posting online about how beautiful Croatia was. So we said, ‘Let's try it.’ It was wonderful. I cannot describe the water. We went snorkeling and 20 feet down it was crystal clear. And the people there were so nice. I tell everyone they should go.”
Also along on the trip was former PCBA president, Marjorie Rogers.
“These trips we do together sort of began when my mom turned 60 the same year I turned 30. We went to Italy that year and Marjorie and my aunt were with us, which kind of started our every other year European travel trips.”
Megan was born and raised near Ruston, Louisiana. After high school, she headed to Texas A&M in College Station. Knowing she wanted to be an attorney, she decided to gain some experience before enrolling in law school.
“I knew I wanted to go to law school, but didn't want to go straight out of college. A family friend works for the Arkansas Public Defender Commission as an investigator. He gave me a few options of places he thought he could find me a job and I ended up in Little Rock at the James Law Firm. Marjorie was working there when I started.”
After working at the firm two years, Megan enrolled at Bowen, and deciding her future was in family law, she began clerking at Hilburn and Harper in 2014, which led to full time employment there as a family law attorney after she passed the Bar exam.
Megan says Bill and Patti James were a large influence on her decision to pursue a career in family law. Bill is a criminal lawyer and Patti was, at that time, doing family law. She has since become the Honorable Patti James.
“I loved the courtroom setting and finally decided to become a family lawyer,” she says, “and it also had something to do with what I saw my parents go through in their divorce, I hope I can help the system become better.”
“Patti is still my family law mentor and I call on her with questions. I also got to work with her last year on the Domestic Relations CLE for the PCBA.”
“We are working towards making the system better. In some ways it is but in some ways it seems worse. We're working towards cutting out a lot of the litigation because they've moved towards joint custody. On an initial custody determination, unless you can meet a very high burden, it’s going to be joint custody. So that should cut out a lot of litigation. They've also revised the child support chart, so it's pretty much here's what it is, and that should cut out litigation.”
She says it hasn't cut out litigation yet. But they keep trying.
Megan also does Ad litem work, which is when the court appoints an attorney to act in a child’s best interest.
“You have to establish a rapport with the children. You have to try and get to know the kids and you're looking into both parties lives. You have one on one conversations with the children, trying to establish trust to get to the truth. Kids can be very protective of their parents. Ad litem work could really be revised because it is a full-time job.”
We visited a little longer and came up with names of people we have in common, her through the practice of law and me through the practice of golf.
“Golf was how I was conned into going into law,” she laughed. “I loved to play golf when I was young and even started the first girl’s golf team at my high school. Gosh, I played with boys for junior high and freshman year and then they finally allowed us to have a girls golf team. Marjorie tells people that I played golf at Texas A&M, but that’s not true. Anyway, we use to play golf with a judge in Louisiana. We played with him all the time and everyone told me, you need to be an attorney because you get to play golf whenever you want. So I did. Now I never play. Who’s got the time!”
Megan said the first board meeting for the new PCBA year was recently held and the monthly luncheons will be held on the second Friday of each month, starting in September, at Next Level Events at Union Station.
“Those luncheons are a great way for us to come together,” she says.
“My biggest goal for the year is really to just get people back involved. COVID, I think, really hurt organizations like the Bar Association because now we're used to working on our computer. We're used to doing everything from home or on our phone and the people don't interact that much anymore. And you know, it was so integral for me to meet people. That's how I got to know attorneys on a personal basis rather than just, oh, I've heard that name before. And so I really want to get people coming back and becoming active.”
“Besides the luncheons, we have socials and we did a big holiday party last year for all attorneys. We've done trivia nights and we may be pairing with the law school to do an event to help law students who are interested in the PCBA meet attorneys that they'll be practicing with. We're trying to do things where there's interaction between the two groups, because ultimately, if you're a part of PCBA during law school, we hope that you will become part of PCBA as an attorney.”
“Anyway, I’m looking forward to an educational and fun year in our association.”
So are we Megan.
Photo Caption:
2. (Left to right) Janet Wells, Olivia Fisher, Toni Fisher, Megan Wells, Kristin Appler, Marjorie Rogers in Croatia last year.
Photo Credit:
1. Photo by Kathy Edwards
