Raising the Bar: Attorney Kristin Pawlik is an advocate for Arkansas’ judicial system

The daughter of a small-town lawyer, Kristin Pawlik wasn’t sure exactly what she would do once she graduated college. She had thoughts of being a journalist until she learned of the disappointing pay scale.

That eventually led her to consider her father’s vocation. She had witnessed firsthand how practicing law in what was then a much different Bentonville might not be lucrative but could be financially comfortable. Her father, originally from Los Angeles, found his way to Bentonville in the early 1970s, following Pawlik’s mother back to her roots.

“Growing up, Bentonville was much different. There were all these little, tiny, small towns around it. And so he loved practicing law in a small town and just really ate it up. I always had people come to the house to put the deck back on or come to the house to do some yard work to pay their bills and trade or whatever. He enjoyed the people and their stories. And a lot of his stories are, ‘Well, I met this guy and let me tell you about him.’ I think I was drawn to that,” she said.

Pawlik, a partner with Miller, Butler, Schneider, Pawlik and Rozzell PLLC out of offices in Fayetteville and Rogers, is the new president of the Arkansas Bar Association. Pawlik, 49, says her 20-plus years in and out of courtrooms has been defining.

“I think of my practice as almost crisis management because most of it is family law, and it’s high conflict, usually complex assets. People are having their worst days when they come to see me. So no one really walks through my door and says they’ve won the lottery, and they need to figure out how to spend it,” she said.

Her area of the law is an emotional business, and it’s been that way since the beginning of her legal career. After completing her journalism and law degrees at the University of Arkansas, Pawlik knew from her clerkships and work experience she wanted to be in the courtroom.

“I knew that being a public defender or prosecutor was probably my best shot. And so I interviewed at the prosecutor’s office. I might have been happy at the prosecutor’s office, but the public defender’s office offered me the job. Now, I can’t imagine having started off as a prosecutor. I so loved being the underdog,” she said.

FINDING HUMANITY
Pawlik isn’t a heart-on-her-sleeve liberal. She is a compassionate lawyer who respects different walks of life and believes the judicial system should treat people fairly despite the crimes of which they are accused.

“A lot of my clients have experienced trauma, and that’s another aspect of it that kind of then makes my representation a little more complex. I do a little bit of plaintiff’s employment work. And then I still do criminal defense because that’s how I started,” she said.

As a public defender, Pawlik saw a little bit of everything. This made the job interesting and opened her eyes to the circumstances of some citizens who needed the right balance of punishment, a second chance and a fair shot at justice.

“Obviously [as a public defender], most of them didn’t have financial resources, but what was also true is that most of them had never had anybody to stand up for them before. They’re used to being characterized a certain way or being easy targets. Don’t get me wrong, I mean there were people who had committed some really serious crimes, and the legal part of it is helping them through that. But just finding something, some humanity in each person and kind of connecting with them and learning about their lives – it just gave me a lot of context. … Some client stories are just stranger than fiction sometimes,” she said.

Despite the emotional stress of the work, Pawlik loves her job – something not every person can say. She feels lucky to be where she is: a successful practice, a supportive husband, three active boys, and of course, rising through the ranks of the Arkansas Bar Association.

SYSTEM SUPPORT
She views her latest role as a protector of the legal system and preserver of the judicial branch, all of which has come under attack in recent years at a level not seen in American history.

“It’s a grave concern that I have because our judicial system exists because we believe in it. And just like democracy and the republic, I mean, those exist because we believe in it. The citizens have chosen to believe. And if that belief and confidence is eroded, then everything else can fall,” Pawlik said.

She advocates for lawyers to do more to plug into their communities – whether that’s church, little league baseball, an athletic club or a library board meeting. She says people need to understand that lawyers are human, they’re helpful, and they are neighbors and community leaders.

“Lawyers are taught skills in law school such as how to analyze a problem, take a position, make an argument, but make it with compassion and understanding that there are different viewpoints. You can still defend and speak for your client or speak for your strongly held belief, but that doesn’t mean you have to demonize someone that doesn’t share that same viewpoint.

“I think as lawyers, we can just keep repeating and advocating that we do believe in the system, that we do believe in judges, and we do believe that they’ve sworn an oath similar to what we swear when we take our oath of office to uphold the constitution and treat others with dignity and protect the rule of law,” she said.

ATTORNEY SUPPORT
Her agenda as Arkansas Bar Association president includes two pressing issues: mental health and legal deserts. Pawlik knows the stress of serving as a lawyer leads to personal emotional struggles. Family lawyers, criminal lawyers and business lawyers all contend with duress and stress in their daily professional lives. That doesn’t factor in what may be happening personally.

“It is a high-pressure job. There’s secondary trauma. You bring the pain that your clients have, you bring it back home with you,” she said, noting that the association and other professional organizations have to make psychological resources more accessible to members.

The recent mass shooting in Fordyce, Ark., highlights another critical need in legal deserts. While larger metro areas are well-served with legal resources, Pawlik notes there are many communities that don’t have a single lawyer who can help a person in need. She said statistics show that Texas has 114,000 lawyers, while Oklahoma has 14,000 lawyers.

“We [Arkansas] might have 7,500 lawyers, and we’re always in the lowest percentage of lawyers to citizens,” she said.

During her one-year term, Pawlik will be working on another high-profile event related to the Arkansas Bar Association, and it will likely consume more time in the coming years. A conference of Southern state bar presidents is slated to come to Arkansas in 2029. Pawlik will help coordinate the big event, and she hopes Northwest Arkansas can host.

“I feel really lucky that I was born in Northwest Arkansas, that I was raised in Bentonville and I got to discover it before everybody else did. I just really love this area of the state,” she said. “I am looking forward to bringing other bar leaders across the country to Arkansas. … I cannot wait to show them our state. I can’t even imagine. Who knows what Bentonville will be like by then?”