FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The first man of color to work in a major Arkansas law firm, Judge Wendell L. Griffen of the Sixth District of the Arkansas Court of Appeals, will speak about his experience as an appellate judge at noon on Friday, March 31.

The event, located at the University of Arkansas School of Law courtroom in the Leflar Law Center on the southeast corner of Maple Street and Garland Avenue, will include pizza and drinks; seating is limited to the first 150 attendees.

Griffen was born in Prescott, Ark., and grew up near Delight (Pike County), Ark. He earned his Juris Doctor in 1979 from the University of Arkansas School of Law, where he was president of the Black Law Student Association and associate editor of the Arkansas Law Review.

He was awarded the first Silas Hunt Memorial Justice Award presented by the Black Law Student Association in memory of Silas Hunt, who was the first black law student admitted to an institution of higher education below the Mason Dixon line since Reconstruction.

Griffen joined the Little Rock law firm of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings, becoming the first lawyer of color to join a major Arkansas law firm. He practiced business and tort litigation with the law firm and was admitted to the partnership in January 1984, becoming the first lawyer of color admitted to the partnership of a major Arkansas law firm. On April 15, 1985, Gov. Bill Clinton appointed him chairman of the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission, and Griffen served in that position until Feb. 2, 1987, when he returned to his law practice with Wright, Lindsey & Jennings. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker appointed Judge Griffen to the Court of Appeals in December 1995, and he began judicial service on Jan. 1, 1996.