Visiting Professor of Law
J.D., 1979, University of Arkansas-Fayetteville
Wendell Griffen served on the Arkansas Court of Appeals from Jan. 1, 1996 thru Dec. 31, 2008, before joining the UALR Bowen School of Law faculty as a Visiting Professor in January 2009. He became the first lawyer of color to practice law in a white majority law firm in Arkansas when he joined the Little Rock firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings in June 1979, and became the first lawyer of color admitted to the partnership of a white majority firm when he became a partner in that firm in January 1984. In April 1985, Judge Griffen became the first person of color to serve on the Arkansas Workers Compensation Commission when then-Gov. Bill Clinton appointed him chairman of that agency. Judge Griffen served in that post until Feb. 2, 1987, when he returned to private law practice with Wright, Lindsey, and Jennings. His law practice focused on defending personal injury claims, workers’ compensation defense, and general litigation until he was appointed to the Court of Appeals by then-Gov. Jim Guy Tucker in December 1995. Judge Griffen taught Criminal Procedure-Pretrial and led a seminar titled Law and Cultural Competency (making the UALR Bowen School of Law the first to offer such a course anywhere in the United States) during the spring semester of 2009. He will teach Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure-Pretrial during the fall 2009 semester, and will teach Administrative Law and again lead the Law and Cultural Competency seminar during the spring 2010 semester. Judge Griffen received his Juris Doctor degree in 1979 from the University of Arkansas School of Law, where he was an Associate Editor of the Arkansas Law Review. He is an ordained Baptist minister and an honorably discharged veteran of the United States Army, where he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for his work in the area of race relations and equal opportunity leadership.
E-mail: wlgriffen@ualr.edu
Phone: 501.324.9951
Revised: 10/02/2009