Quiet Determination,
Hard Work, Family and Friends
Lead to Success for New Bar President
Murray Claycomb
By Pat Jones
When the new president of the
Arkansas Bar Association talked about his legal career, his community
work and his family during a recent interview at his law offices
in Warren, the stories about the people who helped him and those
he has helped lit up his face. Murray Claycomb is a man of quiet determination,
a family man, a man committed to his community, a man who values
his history.
"My great grandfather was a lawyer
and Lieutenant Governor of Missouri," Claycomb says. "He graduated
from the University of Virginia law school in 1967. My uncles were legislators
in Missouri and Kansas. Our family had an interest in law. Maybe
my desire to be a lawyer came from there."
Claycomb's father wanted him to be an
engineer, so his first year in college he studied engineering at Rice
University. Claycomb was determined to maintain the family legacy of
involvement in the law. He took a battery of aptitude tests and,
armed with that information, convinced his father that he should pursue
a law degree. He transferred from Rice to the University of Missouri
where he received an undergraduate degree in Business Administration.
He was admitted to law school there and earned his J.D. in Law.
After law school, he entered the U.S.
Air Force, was assigned as Assistant Staff Judge Advocate at Little
Rock Air Force Base and joined a local bar association for the first
time. When he left the Air Force for the Reserves, he obtained
a position as Law Clerk at the Arkansas Supreme Court working for Justice
George Rose Smith, who later became the longest sitting Justice of the
Arkansas Supreme Court.
"I was referred to Justice Smith
by William Smith, one of the partners in the Mehaffy, Smith & Williams
law firm (now the Friday firm) in Little Rock. Justice Smith liked
to do woodworking projects as a hobby, and he was busy with such
a project when he learned of my interest in clerking for him,"
Claycomb said. "Never one to stand on ceremony, Justice Smith
stopped what he was doing and interviewed me right in the middle
of his project. He sat on one end of a saw horse and I sat on the other
end."
At the Arkansas Supreme Court, Claycomb
began work on an annotation on a uniform law subject, and he was
hooked on writing. The work was so interesting to him, that when he
left the Court a year later to join the private law firm of another
one of his mentors, Henry Gregory of Pine Bluff, he continued working
on the annotation. It was one of those times when Claycomb saw an opportunity
to do some good for others, and worked hard to make the most of
it.
When the Arkansas Business Corporation
Code was adopted in 1965, Claycomb was asked to do some CLE sessions
on it. Seizing another opportunity to help others, he decided to expand
the content of his CLE sessions into a book, the Arkansas Business
Corporation Handbook 1967. "Law students picked it up and
started using it," Claycomb says with that familiar sparkle in
his eyes. Two of the professors at the University of Arkansas
School of Law at Fayetteville recommended the book to their law
school classes. "I kept getting calls and letters from students.
I think I sold copies for $3.00 each1."
Subsequently, Claycomb wrote two more
books on Arkansas corporations in 1982 and 1992. All of the time
spent on his writing projects was donated because, as he says with characteristic
modesty, "These were topics with which I was acquainted and
I thought the information needed to be made available."
The knowledge and satisfaction he gained
in the course of his writing led him to pursue a more tax related
practice. Claycomb enrolled in the University of Mississippi Law School
at Oxford for specialized study in the field, while continuing
to practice law in Pine Bluff. By then, he and his wife, Jeanne, had
two sons who were five and three years old. Undeterred by his
growing family obligations and his growing law practice, he began
two years of commuting to "Ole Miss" from Pine Bluff to Oxford
(University), Mississippi, twice a week. Again, he turned to his
family for the strength and support he needed to pursue his career
goals. With quiet determination, hard work and his wife's support, he
turned his dream into reality. "Jeanne had lots of extra
problems to deal with when I was doing that LLM," Claycomb says
as he beams a grateful smile toward her from across his office
conference room table.
In 1969, Claycomb went into practice with
Tom Haley at Warren where he now does primarily corporate, probate
work and estate planning. He says his practice has evolved with his
clients' needs. "Here in a small town, you can't totally
restrict your practice."
During Claycomb's 30 years with the firm
located right across the street from the Bradley County Courthouse,
his law partners at Haley, Claycomb, Roper & Anderson have given
him the support he needs to stay active in the Arkansas Bar Association
and the community while maintaining his law practice. As his practice
grew and evolved, Claycomb saw an opportunity to give back to the community
by sharing his talent for leadership and he followed through on
it. He was on the Board of the local YMCA for 24 years, serving
two years as its president. He was president of the local Rotary Club
and a member of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce
and the Bradley County Industrial Development Corporation. He
is currently a member of the Warren Airport Commission, the YMCA Foundation,
the legal advisor for the Southeast Arkansas Concert Association, and
a member of the Advisory Board of Southeast Arkansas Community
Based Education Center.
His service to his profession includes
terms in the Arkansas Bar Association's House of Delegates, and the
Board of Governors and two years as Secretary-Treasurer of the Arkansas
Bar Association. Claycomb was a member of the Legal Education
Council, the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the Arkansas
Institute for Continuing Legal Education, and Chair of the Jurisprudence
and Law Reform Committee. Among the Association committees on
which he has served are the International Law Committee and the
Resolutions Committee. He was also involved with the Economics of Law
Practice and Taxation Sections.
He helped write the first "Arkansas
Desk Manual," authoring the Appeals Chapter and co-authoring Appeals
in Criminal Cases with Thorp Thomas. Claycomb was also on the Editorial
Board of the Arkansas Corporation System, Co-Editor of the "Arkansas
Law Office Handbook", and Editor of the most recent (1998)
edition of the "Arkansas Form Book," a two-volume, 1,200 page
publication of forms considered by many to be essential to attorneys
practicing in the state of Arkansas. He wrote the Arkansas Corporations
with Forms books in 1982 and 1992 and donated the royalties to the Arkansas
Bar Foundation.
He was a member of the Board of Governors
of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association. In addition to his
work with the Arkansas and American Bar Associations, he is a member
of the American Judicature Society and a fellow, sustaining fellow
and former President of the Arkansas Bar Foundation serving on
the Foundation Board from 1988 through 1990. His service to the Foundation
includes terms on the Awards Committee, Building Committee, Trust
Committee, Selection of Fellows and Membership Committee (now
defunct), and the Audit and Special House Committee (94 95). In 1996,
he received the C.E. Ransick Award from the Arkansas Bar Association
and the Arkansas Bar Foundation in recognition of extraordinary
service to the legal profession. The following statement from the Awards
brochure summarized his many attributes and clearly explains why
he truly deserved the award.
"Murray is a lawyer's lawyer. His
attention to detail, his thoroughness and his competence are legendary.
The quality and quantity of Murray's law practice are a result of his
intellectual gifts, but more the result of the long hours he devoted
to his practice and his study of the law."
He maintains membership in the Southeast Arkansas and Bradley
County Bar Associations, and is a member of the Defense Research
Institute and International Association of Defense Counsel. He is listed
in Marquis' Who's Who in American Law, Who's Who in America, and
Who's Who in the World.
His professional and community service
work keep him busy, so it's important to take time to relax. Swimming,
painting, drawing, gardening and entertaining friends and family are
what he enjoys most. Of course, he is an avid "Hog"
fan. Following the Razorbacks is a pasttime he shares with his wife,
who is a UA graduate.
While Claycomb was stationed at Little
Rock Air Force Base, he was introduced to the former Jeanne Cavin.
Claycomb's face lights up as he talks about their life together, from
their wedding at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock to the many
Association events they have shared. The Claycombs have been one of
the most graceful couples on the dance floor at the Arkansas Bar Association
Annual Meeting dances and they have been among the most gracious
representatives of our state at American Bar Association meetings.
Jeanne has maintained a business while
raising a family, supporting her husband's career and volunteering
for service and charitable organizations. She currently serves on the
Board of the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America
in Arkansas, which is dedicated to the purposes of patriotic service,
historical preservation, education and memorials in our state and country.
She owns and operates two shops called The Spinning Wheel in Warren
and Monticello: the Warren store is a few blocks from her husband's
law office. Their two sons, Scott and Stephen, both graduated from the
U of A Medical School and are both physicians - one is an ophthalmologist
in Warren and Monticello and the other is a pediatrician in Tennessee.
The Claycombs' sons, their wives, Charlotte and Tienna, and two of their
five grandchildren were proud guests at the Arkansas Bar Association
Annual Meeting in June. His first law partner in Warren and dear
friend, Tom Haley (retired), was also in the audience with his wife,
Anne, still supporting Claycomb as he assumed the presidency of
the Arkansas Bar Association.
When Murray Claycomb sees an opportunity
to do some good, he makes the most of it. He adds hard work and
determination and gets the kind of results that make his supporters
proud. On June 14, 2002, at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs,
he was sworn into the top elected office of his state's professional
association by Chief Justice W.H. "Dub" Arnold of the
Arkansas Supreme Court. His remarks upon acceptance of this new
challenge expressed his gratitude for the support of his friends and
family and for yet another opportunity to serve.
1. Chapter six (securities) of the 1992 book, "Arkansas
Corporations with Forms," was written by John Selig.
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