Art of the Deal Ingrains Smith In NWA Business Community

Fayetteville attorney Jim Smith is a fan of American art icon Andy Warhol, and several copies of his works hang on the walls of Smith’s Dickson Street office.

One of the prints is of Muhammad Ali, the boxing great.

“People ask me if I’m a boxer,” Smith joked.

Ali’s presence in Smith’s office isn’t because of any great admiration of pugilism, but rather because of a quote that’s often attributed to the former heavyweight champion: “The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

Smith said the quotation has always been a favorite of his because of its simplicity, and its accuracy.

As Ali’s words reflect, a good many things can only come from age and experience.

That’s certainly an appropriate adage to apply to Smith, who arrived in Northwest Arkansas in 2000 as a relative unknown, but has become a sought-after business lawyer in the region.

“I came here and didn’t have much of a practice,” Smith said. “But this last decade or so has been a whirlwind.”

Smith, a gregarious fellow and the founding partner of Smith Hurst PLC in Fayetteville, was 32 in 2001 when he was included in the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 class.

A Russellville native, he earned degrees from Arkansas Tech University (where he also played baseball), the University of Arkansas School of Law and New York University School of Law. He then went to work in the mergers and acquisitions group of Friday, Eldridge & Clark, the largest Arkansas-based law firm in the state.

Smith worked in the firm’s Little Rock home office from 1995 until August 2000 when he and a litigation colleague, Cliff Plunkett, were delegated to open an office in Fayetteville.

“I had the Friday name, but really no relationships up here,” Smith said. “But we got involved in the community and a lot of events and spent some time trying to create the business. And we did some fabulous transactions up here and had some great clients.

“Fortunately, most of them are still my clients.”

Smith and Rebecca Hurst, colleagues at the Friday firm, opened up their own shop in the summer of 2011.

For Smith, it was something he had been thinking about since he was a teen — having his own business, to build his own name and his own brand.

And at 42 years old, Smith said the time to become his own boss had arrived.

 “If I was ever going to do it, I needed to get on with it,” he recalled. “I knew the lay of the land, had fallen in love with Northwest Arkansas and knew this was where I was going to spend the rest of my life.”

Smith’s practice still centers on mergers and acquisitions, and representing a variety of companies through transactions based on the lifecycle of a business.

“I love doing deals,” Smith said.

The firm started with a full head of steam right out of the gate. Smith represented Rockfish Interactive, the Rogers-based digital agency, in its sale to WPP Digital, an investment arm of WPP, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies with a reported $15 billion in revenue.

“It was a life-changing event for the firm,” Smith said, noting that the papers were signed at his residence because the firm’s Fayetteville office space was not yet complete.

The day the Rockfish agreement was signed, Smith met with Ike Thrash and Sam Alley and was hired to represent the two in their purchase of the former Cosmopolitan Hotel in Fayetteville, a much ballyhooed deal completed Oct. 31, 2011, for nearly $4 million. It now operates as the Chancellor Hotel.

Smith also acted as legal counsel for Fayetteville company Acumen Brands Inc. in its $83 million Series C investment round led by General Atlantic, the largest private equity investment within the state of Arkansas.

“We’ve had some extreme luck and some good friends that had us involved in some major contracts,” Smith said.

To achieve a healthy work-life balance, a chore that’s not easy, Smith said, he often retreats to his home just outside Fayetteville on Arkansas Highway 45. Cooking and reading books are two favorite hobbies.

Smith also enjoys taking trips with his wife and two sons, ages 10 and 13, oftentimes for a scuba diving adventure.

Smith is also a big proponent of the ARK Challenge and other entrepreneurial initiatives, lending his business acumen to several startups.

“We want to go all in with Northwest Arkansas, because this is a great place to live,” he said.