News Releases

Griffin Appoints Bowen School of Law Director of Advocacy Patrick Harris to Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission

Griffin: ‘[Harris’s] long career of courtroom experience will be an asset to the work of the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, and ultimately benefit all Arkansans’

LITTLE ROCK – Attorney General Tim Griffin issued the following statement upon appointing William H. Bowen School of Law Director of Advocacy Patrick Harris to serve on the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission:

“Patrick Harris has a long and distinguished record of public service, not only as a federal prosecutor of murder, RICO, extortion, kidnapping, and public-corruption cases, but also as a longtime adjunct professor of law at the Bowen Law School and now as its Director of Advocacy supervising adjunct professors and the mock trial and moot court teams. I worked closely with Pat at the U.S. Attorney’s Office on two separate occasions and know his long career of courtroom experience will be an asset to the work of the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, and ultimately benefit all Arkansans.”

Harris’s appointment is effective today and will last until June 30, 2029.

For a printer-friendly version of this release, click here.

About Attorney General Tim Griffin

Tim Griffin was sworn in as the 57th Attorney General of Arkansas on January 10, 2023, having previously served as the state’s 20th Lieutenant Governor from 2015-2023. From 2011-2015, Griffin served as the 24th representative of Arkansas’s Second Congressional District, where he served on the House Committee on Ways and Means, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, House Committee on Ethics and House Committee on the Judiciary while also serving as a Deputy Whip for the Majority.

Griffin has served as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps for more than 27 years and currently holds the rank of colonel. In 2005, Griffin was mobilized to active duty as an Army prosecutor at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and served with the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) in Mosul, Iraq.

He is currently serving as the Commander of the 2d Legal Operations Detachment in New Orleans, Louisiana. His previous assignments include serving as the Commander of the 134th Legal Operations Detachment at Fort Liberty (née Bragg), North Carolina, and as a Senior Legislative Advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness at the Pentagon. Griffin earned a master’s degree in strategic studies as a Distinguished Honor Graduate from the U.S. Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Griffin also served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Political Affairs for President George W. Bush; Special Assistant to Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; Senior Investigative Counsel, Government Reform and Oversight Committee, U.S. House of Representatives; and Associate Independent Counsel, Office of Independent Counsel David M. Barrett, In re: HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros.

Griffin is a graduate of Magnolia High School, Hendrix College in Conway, and Tulane Law School in New Orleans. He attended graduate school at Oxford University. He is admitted to practice law in Arkansas (active) and Louisiana (inactive). Griffin lives in Little Rock with his wife, Elizabeth, a Camden native, and their three children.

###