UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law
Law Student Spotlight
Meet Caleb Alexander-McKinzie – a law student with a passion for Arkansas’s unsheltered communities
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ays My goal was alw rI law school afte ltered met the unshe aleb community,” C has said. “The law , but it to be punitive be doesn’t need to debilitative.”
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Caleb Alexander-McKinzie is afraid of one thing – free time. He copes by making sure he doesn’t have any. Caleb grew up in DeValls Bluff, graduated from high school in Des Arc, and started college at UCA immediately after graduation. But soon after starting, he realized he needed a break. That break turned into a 10-year hiatus. During that time, Caleb worked in industrial construction. The job meant wide travel, good pay, and four months off each year. During his time off, he began volunteering with The Van, a non-profit that serves the unsheltered community, building relationships and helping them where they are with what they need. As Caleb built relationships, he found a continuing thread through each story – many people were homeless due to a bad experience in some way with the legal system. These stories led him to law, and the passion for telling them led him to law school. “My goal was always law school after I met the unsheltered community,” Caleb said. “The law has to be punitive, but it doesn’t need to be debilitative.” That realization led him back to college at UA Little Rock to finish his undergraduate degree and then to Bowen for law school. Caleb is now a 3L in Bowen’s full-time program. His favorite class so far has been constitutional law. “I fell in love with con law,” he explains. “So much of what I want to do is affected by how the constitution is interpreted. Both with the unsheltered community and as a gay man who lives in the south.” Caleb is a past-president of Bowen’s OutLaw Legal Society, having served in this role during his 2L year. He decided not to serve a second term because he believes the group is stronger if they can provide leadership growth for 1L and 2L members. “I ran for secretary, and I’m still very much involved with the organization.” That involvement has led to one of Caleb’s favorite law school experiences. Due in part to the virtual meeting format required by Covid, OutLaw was able to host a discussion on proposed hate-crime legislation in Arkansas and how, at that time, Arkansas was one
of three states that didn’t have any such legislation. Panelists including historians, human rights campaigners, constitutional law scholars, and a bipartisan group of Arkansas legislators. Attendees were able to give input to legislators about the legislation they were drafting. In addition to his work with OutLaw, Caleb clerked at the Arkansas Municipal League this summer. He served as an inquiry clerk, fielding legal questions from cities/towns in Arkansas and researching answers to those questions. He also helped counsel draft and craft legislation and spoke with all levels of government about the impact of legislation. “I loved helping the League further their mission of making sure Arkansas municipal bodies have a voice in legislation,” Caleb said. “For me, positive change starts with good policy.” Over the past year, he also helped found and continues to serve on the board of directors of Arkansans for Stronger Communities, a non-profit organization advocating for and helping to craft legislation to change the landlord-tenant laws in Arkansas. The group’s efforts were influential in a piece of legislation that serves as a foundation for change in Arkansas landlord-tenant law. “We are closer now than ever before in joining 49 other states who protect tenants with a functional Warranty of Habitability.” “It’s a good start,” Caleb said. “It’s more than what we had in the past.” This fall, he’s completing a public policy externship with the Arkansas office of the ACLU. He’s also still heavily involved with The Van. He drives to the unsheltered communities most weekends, taking them clothing, hygiene items, and camping supplies. “Law students will sometimes see me in the park talking with community members who happen to be unsheltered,” Caleb said, smiling. “They always look worried until I tell them, ‘It’s good. I know that guy. I was just taking him a pair of pants.” Page 2 of 2
In addition to his law school studies and his work, Caleb and a panel of friends host a podcast—Southern Fried Geekery. The group of professionals talk about comics and graphic novels. It’s a life-long passion for Caleb. “My obsession started with superheroes, as most collectors do, but it grew from there, again as most do,” he explains. “Comics are a story-telling medium. It’s not a genre--it encompasses all genres. It’s a different way of telling a story and presenting a theme that may, at times, be easier to understand. That doesn’t make it any less serious as a critique.” Caleb’s post-graduation plan is to stay in Little Rock. His husband has a career here as an RN. They met in 2011 and were married in 2016. “When I met Roger, I was a Harleyriding, tattooed, construction worker. Now I’m a comic book nerd/law student who talks a lot about bell hooks,” Caleb joked. In addition to Roger and their three dogs, the people The Van helps are here. “I want to stay local and help those people overcome extreme poverty and homelessness,” he said. “I don’t want to leave LGBTQ kids who can’t leave the state behind. There is a lot of work to do here, and I’m hoping to stay focused on policy that deals with poverty and discrimination.” “I don’t know if I can make a dent in it, but I’m damn sure going to try.”
University of Arkansas School of Law
Law Student Spotlight
Meet Christopher Barnes
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eople and I like serving p the best helping them in ing people way I can. See s get taken and companie spired me to advantage of in a ool so I can be attend law sch .” voice for them
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Christopher Barnes is one of the 131 new J.D. candidates the University of Arkansas School of Law welcomed this August. He is excited to return to Arkansas after an extended stay in Tennessee and has settled into the demanding coursework of his 1L year with enthusiasm. He is quickly becoming an important member of the law school community. Originally from Pine Bluff, Barnes moved to Tennessee as a young teen to accommodate a career opportunity for his mother. He was unhappy about leaving family in Arkansas but soon adapted to life in the Volunteer State. He played high school football at Hardin Valley Academy in Knoxville and graduated from the school in 2017. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Tennessee, graduating cum laude, in May of 2021. He was active in the Student Political Alliance, Brothers United, and was a student ambassador for the College of Arts and Sciences. Law school at the University of Arkansas was a natural next step for Barnes—he knew he wanted to be a lawyer from a young age and knew he wanted to earn a degree from his home state. Although still in his first semester of law school, Barnes has a clear and long-held desire to become a corporate lawyer. “I am interested in becoming a corporate attorney because I have always wanted to know the behind-the-scenes part of corporations and I am interested in being the ‘guy in the middle,’ Barnes said. “I like serving people and helping them in the best way I can. Seeing people and companies get taken advantage of inspired me to attend law school so I can be a voice for them.” Given his interest in corporate law, it is not surprising that Contract Law, as taught by Sharon Foster, the Sidney Parker Davis Jr. Professor of Law, is his favorite course of the first semester curriculum. Barnes says that Foster, and University Professor Howard
Brill, the Vincent Foster Professor of Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility, who teaches Civil Procedure, are “performative,” which helps students understand the material well. When asked if the difficulty of the first year of law school has lived up to the hype, Barnes says he knew it would be difficult, and it is. “In undergraduate school you had the syllabus week before a professor jumped into the subject matter of the course. I didn’t expect it [law school] would become so difficult so fast.” Barnes is the 2021 recipient of the Boone, Johnson, Neely and Wilson Legal Opportunity Scholarship, created through the generosity of School of Law alumni Cornelius and Tea’ Boone, Greneda Johnson, Efrem Neely, and Angela Wilson. The group, all members of the University of Arkansas School of Law Class of 2007, created the scholarship to encourage and facilitate diverse students in choosing law as a profession. Barnes, a self-proclaimed history buff, practices a unique hobby in an academic way: he collects sneakers, admits to having about 60 pairs, and enjoys researching the historical context of each pair. “Most of them are Jordans,” Barnes said. “They were released at a time when Michael Jordan had memorable games in each of the different colorways. For example, these (pointing to the shoes worn to the interview and pictured) are Jordan 13s. Michael wore them when we won his last NBA Championship in 1998, and Denzel Washington wore them when he portrayed Jordan in the movie, He Got Game. Barnes knows the names of the designers of each pair of shoes and has even repurchased some of the sneakers he owned during his childhood. Now that the fall semester is well underway, Barnes looks forward to exploring the many opportunities the school offers in terms of externships, clerkships, and student organizations. He has already joined the Black American Page 2 of 2
Law Student Association and, when not so busy with the 1L curriculum, he plans to investigate participation in the Business Law Society. He looks forward to engaging with the state’s bench and bar as he progresses through the law program. The faculty and staff of the University of Arkansas School of Law are very happy to welcome Christopher back to Arkansas and his “Home on the Hill.”