Associate Dean for Information & Technology Services; Director of the Law Library; Associate Professor of Law
BA, 1989, UA Little Rock; MLS, 1996, Texas Woman’s University; JD, 2005, UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law
Room 135 | Phone: 501-916-5407 | Email
Jessie Wallace Burchfield is the Director of the Law Library and teaches Specialized Legal Research at the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. In addition to her passion for providing excellent library service, she loves teaching both at the classroom level and in point-of-service reference interactions. Dean Burchfield enjoys getting to know her students as individuals, and has had successful mentoring relationships with several students, many of which were formed through her service on the Jennifer Carson Scholarship Committee, of which she is a founding member. Each year, this group of women attorneys awards a scholarship to a Bowen student who is a custodial single parent; the group offers moral support and mentoring in addition to the monetary award.
Dean Burchfield co-authored the Loislaw User’s Guide (2002), is a former co-author of AALL Annual Meetings: an Annotated Index of the Recordings, is editor of Legal Guide for Arkansas Nonprofit and Volunteer Organizations and has written several articles on various law and library related topics. Her article Federal and State Court Rules Governing Publication and Citation of Opinions, 3 Journal of Appellate Practice and Process 251 (2001), co-authored with Professor Melissa Serfass, won the 2002 Outstanding Article Award from the Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section of AALL.
Dean Burchfield is a graduate of the UA Little Rock Donaghey Scholars Honors Program, and received her M.L.S. from Texas Woman’s University, where she was inducted into Beta Phi Mu. She graduated with high honors from the UA Little Rock Bowen School of Law, where she was a Bowen Scholar and served as a student fellow on the Journal of Appellate Practice and Process.
First-hand exposure at the reference desk to the unmet legal needs of lower- and middle-income Arkansans fueled a passion for access to justice in Dean Burchfield. She currently serves on the Self-Represented Litigant Task Force of the Arkansas Access to Justice Commission and her scholarly agenda includes access to justice issues. Professor Burchfield is also active in the Arkansas Library Association, the Arkansas Bar Association, the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), the Association of American Law Schools, and several regional law library associations.
