Year Elected or Appointed to Current Position

2016

Education:
B.A. (Political Science), University of Arkansas (1973); J.D., University of Arkansas School of Law (1976).

Law-Related Employment:
City Attorney, Mountain View, 1976.

Law Practice or Teaching Areas:
Attorney in private practice, 1976-1986.

Prior Judicial Experience:
Judge, Mountain View Municipal Court, 1977-1986; Judge, Calico Rock City Court, 1979-1981; Circuit Judge, Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, 1987-2016 (Drug Court Judge, 2003-2016).

Associations:
Arkansas Adult Probation Commission, 1989-1993; Arkansas Municipal Judges Association (President, 1983); Arkansas Judicial Council (President, 2011); Mountain View Chamber of Commerce; Mountain View Lions Club.

Other:
Delegate, Arkansas Constitutional Convention, 1978.

Year Elected or Appointed to Current Position

2022

Education:
Clinton High School, Clinton, AR - 1981 Arkansas Tech University, B.S. - 1983 University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law, J.D. - 1987

Law-Related Employment:
Public Defender Van Buren and Searcy Counties 1989-95

Law Practice or Teaching Areas:
Private Law Practice 1987-95

Prior Judicial Experience:
20th Judicial District Circuit/Chancery/Juvenile Judge 1995-96, 20th Judicial District Circuit/Chancery Judge 1997-2000, Associate Judge Arkansas Court of Appeals 2001-2010, Associate Justice Arkansas Supreme Court 2011 - present

Associations:
Arkansas Judicial Council; Arkansas Bar Association; American Bar Association; Van Buren/Searcy County Bar Association- Past President and Member; Faulkner County Bar Association, Arkansas Association of Women Lawyers.

Other:
University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law, Law Journal Member; Assistant Casenote Editor; Survey of Arkansas Workers Compensation Law; Arkansas Continuing Legal Education Board, Supreme Court Liaison; Arkansas Professional Practicum Committee, Supreme Court Liaison.

Year Elected or Appointed to Current Position

2018

Justice Courtney Rae Hudson was elected to the Arkansas Supreme Court in May of 2010. She was raised in Boone County where her extended family still resides on their cattle farm. In 1990, she graduated from Harrison High School. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Arkansas and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude in 1994. Three years later, she graduated with high honors from the University of Arkansas School of Law after representing the law school on the national moot court traveling team.

Early in her career, Justice Hudson clerked for the late Judge Terry Crabtree of Bentonville and Judge Frank Aery of Conway. In 2008, the people of Washington, Benton, Johnson, Franklin, Madison, Carroll, and Crawford counties elected her to serve as a judge on the twelve-member Arkansas Court of Appeals. Two years later, she won her first statewide election, which landed her on the Arkansas Supreme Court at the age of 38. Never before had a candidate been placed on the ballot by petition of registered voters. This made her the youngest Justice ever elected to the high court by the people of Arkansas and the first woman to win a contested race for the Court.

At the Supreme Court, she has served as the supervising justice for the Client Security Fund, the Arkansas Code Revision Committee, and the Committee on Security and Emergency Preparedness. She also directs the payment of funds to court-appointed appellate attorneys. For the past several years, she has devoted a significant amount of her service to supervising the Office and Committee on Professional Conduct, which is charged with the discipline of lawyers throughout the state.

In 2014, the Women’s Law Student Association at the University of Arkansas awarded her the Gayle Pettus Pontz Award for best representing the accomplishments of women in the legal community, helping women thrive in law school, and advancing women in the legal profession. After serving her first eight-year term on the Court, Justice Hudson was reelected statewide in 2018 to a second term.

Twenty-twenty-one found Justice Hudson spearheading the Court’s effort to create the Office of Ethics Counsel after learning of the Arkansas bar’s need for independent, confidential advice when faced with ethical dilemmas. Currently, Justice Hudson serves as the supervising justice for the Office of Professional Conduct, the Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law, and the Client Security Fund committee. In addition to her official duties on the court, Justice Hudson devotes her time to mentoring law students and speaking to civic groups across the state. She and her three children live in Fayetteville.

Year Elected or Appointed to Current Position

2022

Education:
B.A. magna cum laude, with distinction in Politics, Hendrix College; J.D., UALR Bowen School of Law, highest honors, 1999

Law-Related Employment:
Hearing Officer, Conway Housing Authority

Law Practice or Teaching Areas:
Wood Law Firm (Conway); Williams & Anderson PLC (Little Rock); Focus: appellate law, health law, and business law; practiced in Arkansas federal trial and appellate courts. Assistant Dean, UALR Bowen School of Law. Focus: student admissions, teaching health law and business law, founding the externship program, coaching Moot Court; Certified Faculty, National Center for State Courts; Frequent lecturer and presenter for Arkansas Bar Association, Arkansas Association of Women Lawyers, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts, local county bar associations, community organizations.

Prior Judicial Experience:
Circuit Judge, 20th Judicial District, 2007-2012; Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge, 2013-2014.

Associations:
Arkansas Judicial Council. Committee for Education, Committee for Long-Range Planning, Committee for Racial and Gender Equality, and Committee for Juvenile Drug Court(Co-Chair); Arkansas Bar Association. Committee for Health Law (Co-Chair), Committee for Find-a-Lawyer (Chair); Law School Committee six-year delegate to the Arkansas Bar Association, and Legislative Liaison for Health Law; Faulkner County Bar Association.

Publications:
Contributor, Arkansas Bar Association, HIPAA Preemption Analysis for the State of Arkansas (2003); Contributor, Arkansas Bar Association, Arkansas Public Health Bench Book (2009).

Awards:
Arkansas Woman Law Graduate of the Year; Arkansas Bar Association Outstanding Service Award, Recipient (five-time): Best Continuing Legal Education Presentation, by Arkansas Bar Association; Arkansas Elected Official of the Year, by Arkansas Federation of Business and Professional Women; Community Leader of the Year, by Conway Rotary Club.

Other:
Top Score on the Arkansas Bar Examination; Founding Board Member, Conway Interfaith Clinic; Arkansas Business’s “Forty Under Forty.”

Year Elected or Appointed to Current Position

2016

Education:
B.B.A. (Accounting), University of Central Arkansas, 1994; J.D., University of Arkansas School of Law, 1996.

Law-Related Employment:
Legislative Aide, United States Senator Tim Hutchinson, 1997; Member, Arkansas House of Representatives, 1999-2003; Member, Arkansas State Senate, 2003-2009.

Law Practice or Teaching Areas:
Attorney, Womack Law Firm (Mountain Home), 1997-2008.

Prior Judicial Experience:
Special Justice, Arkansas Supreme Court, 2015 (April-May); Circuit Judge, Fourteenth Judicial Circuit, 2009-2016.

Associations:
Arkansas Judicial Council (Chair, Legislative Committee); Arkansas Bar Association; Baxter County Bar Association; The Federalist Society.

Other:
Family: Melinda and two children.

Year Elected or Appointed to Current Position

2020

Education:  
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science in 1979 from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, named to Phi Beta Kappa, and awarded the Henry M. Alexander Award for academic achievement as the top graduating Senior in her degree, Juris Doctorate from Bowen School of Law in 1982 and Associate Editor of the UALR Law Journal.  

Law-Related Employment:
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company In-house counsel 1982-1987, Private Practice with Eichenbaum, Scott, Miller, Liles, & Heister Law, P.A. 1987-1997, Prosecuting Attorney for the 7th and 22nd Judicial Districts from 1997-2002, Quattlebaum, Grooms, Tull, & Burrow, PLLC, 2003-2005, Chief Executive Officer of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission from 2015-2017, and served as an Adjunct Professor of the Bowen School of Law.  

Prior Judicial Experience:
Administrative Law Judge from 2005 until 2015.  First female Circuit Judge in Saline County in 2018.  Chief Administrative Law Judge at the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission 2019 – 2020.
Associations:
Served as a Special Commissioner on the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission, a Special Justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court, a City Court Judge, a Special Judge in Municipal Court, and an Alderman.  Practiced both criminal and civil litigation in both state and federal courts in Arkansas and handled major state regulatory proceedings in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Served on the Ethics Commission, Crime Lab Board, Juvenile Justice Coalition, Child Abuse and Prevention Board, and Department of Justice Anti-Terrorism Task Force.  Member of the Arkansas Bar Association and has served on various committees for the Bar.

Community Involvement:
Moderator of the Arkansas Presbytery, Elder, Deacon, Sunday School Teacher, and President of the local community theater “The Royal Players”, Legal Counsel for the Ouachita Area of the Boy Scouts of America, the Saline County Domestic Violence Coalition, Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center, Saline County Safe Haven, Inc., Saline County Boys and Girls Club, and Benton Junior Auxiliary.

Year Elected or Appointed to Current Position

2023

Education:
B.A. University of Central Arkansas; J.D. UALR Bowen School of Law Little Rock.

Law-Related Employment:
Prosecuting Attorney 20th Judicial District, 2011-2017; United States Attorney for the Eastern District, 2017-2020; Chief Legal Counsel for the Arkansas Department of Public Safety 2020-2022; Staff Attorney Arkansas Public Service Commission.

Law Practice or Teaching Areas:
Partner at Hiland, Thomas & Cox Law Firm, 2006-2010. Associate Attorney, Hixon & Cleveland Law Office

Associations:
Former Board of Trustees, Central Baptist College in Conway Arkansas Term 2005-2010
Former Board Member, Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association
Former Member, National District Attorneys Association
Former Member Prosecutors Center for Excellence, National Best Practices Committee
Former Arkansas Supreme Court Task Force on Uniform Charge Codes
Current Member National Association of Former United States Attorney
Rotary Club Paul Harris Fellow (currently an inactive member)
Current Member Immanuel Baptist Church Little Rock Arkansas

Awards:
Received the Champion of Justice Award from the Arkansas Prosecuting Attorneys Association in 2017
Received the Central Baptist College Alumni Impact Award in 2018
Received the Chairman’s Award from the Arkansas State Police Foundation in 2020
Distinguished Alumni Award from Southside Bee Branch High School
Mustang Community Impact Award, Central Baptist College
Outstanding Alumnus Award, Department of Government, Public Service, & International Studies at the University of Central Arkansas