Wendell Griffen (1952–)

Wendell Griffen is an influential lawyer, judge, legal educator, ordained minister, and business leader who has been a pioneer in legal and judicial circles.

Wendell L. Griffen was born on September 23, 1952, in Prescott (Nevada County) but grew up in Delight (Pike County), in the rural southwestern part of the state. Born to Bennie L. Griffen and Josephine Griffen, he was raised with his brother and sister in a sharecropping community and attended segregated schools until 1965. He graduated from Delight High School in 1968 and then attended the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County), earning a BA in political science and government in 1973.

He served in the U.S. Army for three years, graduating from the Department of Defense Race Relations Institute in 1975 and receiving the Army Commendation Medal. As an army officer, he was involved in facilitating workshops about human relations, equality, cultural competence, and organizational effectiveness. Griffen was honorably discharged in 1976 at the rank of first lieutenant.

At the University of Arkansas School of Law, he served in the Student Bar Association, was president of the Black Law Student Association, and was associate editor of the Arkansas Law Review. When he graduated with his law degree in 1979, he was awarded the first Silas Hunt Memorial Justice Award, presented by the Black Law Student Association in memory of Silas Hunt, the first Black law student admitted to a public institution of higher education below the Mason-Dixon line.

Admitted to the state bar in 1979, Griffen began work at the Little Rock (Pulaski County) firm of Wright, Lindsey & Jennings, becoming the first person of color to join an established major Arkansas law firm. He focused on business and tort litigation and was made a partner in January 1984, becoming the first Black lawyer to earn a partnership in one of the major Arkansas firms.

On April 15, 1985, Griffen was appointed chairman of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission by Governor Bill Clinton, a post he held until February 1987, when he returned to private practice. He was the first African American to head the commission. In 1995, Governor Jim Guy Tucker appointed Griffen to the Arkansas Court of Appeals, effective January 1, 1996. He served on the Court of Appeals until 2008, when he was defeated for reelection, in large part, he believed, because of his vocal opposition to the Iraq War as well as his outspokenness about other public issues, including his support of LGBTQ+ rights.

Griffen’s willingness to speak out on issues off the bench was controversial. But as he often noted, he was also ordained in 1988 as a Baptist minister, and he was clear in his belief that justice should not be, as he put it, “gagged,” but must instead be addressed. In both 2004 and 2006, while serving on the Court of Appeals, Griffen unsuccessfully sought election to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

While on the Court of Appeals, Griffen served as president of the Pulaski County Bar Association, president of the Judge William R. Overton Inn of Court, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church of Little Rock, and parliamentarian of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. He has also published articles on topics such as racial diversity and inclusion in the twenty-first century, judicial accountability and discipline, extra-judicial speech and the First Amendment, and civility in legal litigation. He served on the Council for the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Science and Technology Law, co-moderating an ABA Annual Meeting Forum on the implications of science and technology on law in the next millennium.

Griffen remained active after leaving the Court of Appeals. During the 2009–2010 academic year, Griffen served on the faculty of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law as a visiting professor of law, teaching a course in pretrial criminal procedure as well as leading a seminar titled “Cultural Competency, Inclusion, and Law,” a class that built upon the work he had done in the army. In 2008, he founded Griffen Strategic Consulting (GSC), which counsels a wide array of organizations and religious institutions with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion, strategic planning and development, and more. He has also been an active blogger.

From 2011 to 2022, he served as Circuit Judge of the Fifth Division, Sixth Judicial District in Arkansas, having first won election to the seat in 2010. Running unopposed, he was reelected in 2016.

Griffen’s time on the bench was not without controversies, foremost among them his outspoken opposition to capital punishment, which raised questions about the free-speech right of jurists of the bench. The issue came to a head in 2017, when Griffen joined a protest against capital punishment outside the Governor’s Mansion, an act that sparked outrage among death penalty supporters as well as many Republican legislators, who argued that it represented judicial misconduct and was cause for removal from the bench. The incident led Attorney General Leslie Rutledge to ask the Arkansas Supreme Court to remove Griffen from a death penalty case he was involved with at the time. The state Supreme Court did remove him from that case, as well as future capital cases. In 2022, he announced that he would not seek reelection and would instead be retiring from the bench.

However, in 2025, to the surprise of many, Griffen announced his formal return to the public arena, declaring his intention to run for the position of county judge of Pulaski County in 2026.

Griffen and his wife, Dr. Patricia L. Griffen, a clinical psychologist practicing in Little Rock, are parents to two adult sons: Martyn and Elliott. The couple lives in Little Rock, where Griffen also serves as pastor of New Millennium Church, a position he has held since May 2009.

For additional information:
Donahue, Dianna D. “Judge Wendell Griffen Eyes Pulaski County Judge Seat in 2026.” Urbane Magazine, April 14, 2025. https://theurbanemagazine.weebly.com/griffen-2026-campaign.html (accessed July 13, 2026).

“Honorable Rev. Wendell L. Griffen—Co-Chair.” Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference https://sdpconference.info/rev-wendell-l-griffen (accessed July 13, 2026).

Liptak, Adam, “When a Judge Offers an Opinion away from the Bench.” New York Times, April 16, 2007. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/us/16bar.html (accessed July 13, 2026).

Lynch, John. “Griffen Sets Plans for Courtroom Exit.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, February 2, 2021, pp. 1A, 4A. Online at https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/feb/02/griffen-sets-plans-for-courtroom-exit/ (accessed July 13, 2026).

Powell, Philip. “‘We Are One County’: Rev. Wendell Griffen Campaigns for Pulaski County Judge.” Arkansas Times, July 2025, p. 9. Online at https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2025/07/07/we-are-one-county-a-qa-with-rev-wendell-griffen-pulaski-county-judge-hopeful (accessed July 13, 2026).

William H. Pruden III
Raleigh, North Carolina