When asked if she could summarize her career in three words, Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright replied without hesitation.

“I am blessed. I am fortunate,” she said.

Pausing, she added with a smile, “That’s six words, isn’t it?”

Wright, a former chief judge, professor, assistant dean, and law clerk, has journeyed far and accomplished much.

She’ll share some of that journey with the public on Saturday, May 16, when she delivers the keynote address to UALR Bowen School of Law graduates.

The talk will be recorded and later aired by the C-SPAN network, which is criss-crossing the country highlighting various commencement ceremony speeches. Bowen’s commencement is set for 12:30 p.m. in the Wally Allen Ballroom of the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.

A family affair
Born in Texarkana to a family of lawyers, Wright decided to pursue law because of academic interest and familial influence.

She received her juris doctorate and master of public administration from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville following an undergraduate education at Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Virginia.

Immediately after graduating law school in 1975, Wright served as a law clerk to J. Smith Henley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The following year she started teaching at UALR Bowen School of Law where she would remain for the next 14 years.

An opportunity presented itself to Wright in 1990 when her former employer and mentor, U.S. House Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt, recommended her to President George H.W. Bush for the vacancy of the Eastern District of Arkansas.

“I never set out to be a judge,” she said. “The opportunity knocked, and I decided to take advantage of it.”

During this time, she also served as chief judge of the district for seven years.

In 1998, she received national attention when she dismissed the sexual harassment lawsuit brought by Paula Jones against President Bill Clinton.

“I’ve had a lot of memorable cases, and they all changed my life when I had them, but I can’t say that any has changed my life permanently,” she said.

Wright still serves as U.S. District Judge in the Eastern District of Arkansas, and she took senior status in 2013.

With a life full of many roles, Wright is motivated to follow the law and be fair.

“I’m influenced by judges who have been my mentors, and I’m influenced by the law and the constitution,” she said.

UALR William H. Bowen School of Law student Mary Claire Hyatt (’15) has been named a postgraduate Equal Justice Works Fellow for 2015-2017.

Hyatt, one of only 61 fellows selected from a nationwide pool of candidates, is the first Bowen graduate to earn the distinction.

The competitive fellowship, sponsored by Walmart and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, will enable Hyatt to pursue a public interest law project based at Legal Aid of Arkansas’s Medical-Legal Partnership at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.

Her mission will be to work with medical staff and social workers to ensure that low-income children and families with special education needs get the services they are entitled to under the law.

She is the first Arkansas graduate to be a fellow at the Medical-Legal Partnership. “I am very honored that I will have this wonderful opportunity,” Hyatt said.

Hyatt’s passion for public interest began as an undergraduate at Hendrix College. She volunteered as a probation officer with Juvenile Services of Faulkner County, where she helped to develop supportive programs for at risk youth.

At Bowen, Hyatt serves as the president of the Public Interest Law Society, where she has helped to grow the membership of the organization and connect students to pro bono service opportunities.

She has served as a research assistant, temporary law clerk with the Arkansas Court of Appeals, and worked with the Arkansas attorney general’s office.

“In a state with so much need, projects such as Medical-Legal Partnership are essential to ensuring that struggling families get access to basic services,” said Michael Hunter Schwartz, dean of the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law.

“Mary Claire’s choice to pursue this kind of work is a wonderful demonstration of how Bowen graduates live our core values of public service, access to justice, and professionalism.”

One of Hyatt’s first tasks when she starts her new fellowship in Fall 2015 will be to develop a screener to help identify patients at Arkansas Children’s Hospital who have unmet special education needs.

Patients’ families will be provided a range of advocacy including self-help tools and direct legal representation provided by Hyatt and pro bono legal teams from Walmart and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

“We are excited to have Mary Claire Hyatt join our team at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Her selfless dedication to public service is evident and her project will enhance our holistic service delivery approach and improve educational and health outcomes for patients,” says Lee Richardson, executive director of Legal Aid of Arkansas Inc.

Advocating for the unmet educational and social needs of Arkansas’s most vulnerable children can be a daunting task, but Hyatt is up for the challenge.

“I am beyond excited to begin working with and serving the people of Arkansas,” she said.