Current Employment Position(s)

Partner

Year Joined Organization: 1972

Lawyer Overview

Paul Benham joined the firm in 1972 following a year in which he was the law clerk for Carleton Harris, Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court. He immediately began a corporate finance practice representing banks and other secured lenders. In the early 1980s, he undertook the representation of clients such as Arkansas Power & Light Company (now, Entergy Arkansas, Inc.), Dillard Department Stores, Inc., (now, Dillard's, Inc.) and First Commercial Bancshares, Inc. (now, Regions Bank) in a corporate finance and mergers and acquisition practice that requires expertise in federal and state securities laws. He also began a municipal bond practice, focusing primarily on industrial development revenue bond financings. In addition, he presently advises Union Pacific Railroad with respect to regulatory matters in the State of Arkansas. His finance practice has involved initial, primary and secondary public offerings of equity and debt securities and of hybrid securities such as junior subordinated deferrable interest debentures, collateralized pollution control revenue bonds, subordinated trust preferred securities, and leveraged and synthetic leases. He has also represented both lenders and borrowers in sophisticated, non-traditional, project financings. He represented the Arkansas State Highway Commission in the Arkansas GARVEE Bond Program, a unique combination of federal and state funds more than $650 million for interstate highway repair and resurfacing.

Areas of Practice

• Corporate Finance
• Securities Regulation
• Public Utilities Finance and Regulation
• Mergers and Acquisitions

Representative Clients

• Dillards, Inc.
• Entergy Corporation
• Entergy Arkansas, Inc.
• Regions Financial Corporation
• Union Pacific Railroad Company

West Practice Categories

Securities Regulation, Business Organizations, Banking & Finance Law, Government Agencies & Programs, Public Utilities, Public Finance, Mergers & Acquisitions

Bar Admissions

• Arkansas, 1971
• U.S. Court of Appeals 8th Circuit
• U.S. District Court Eastern District of Arkansas
• U.S. District Court Western District of Arkansas
• U.S. Supreme Court

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Pulaski County Bar Association (Member)
• Arkansas Bar Association, Business Law Section (Member)
• American Bar Association, Business Law Section (Member)
• American Bar Association, Public Utility Law Section (Member)
• Arkansas Bar Association, Business Law Section, 1995 - 1996 (Chairman)
• Arkansas Bar Association, State and Federal Securities Law Committee (Member)
• CARTI Foundation Board
• Pleasant Valley Country Club, Board of Governors, 2000 (President)

Education

• University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Leflar Law Center, Fayetteville, Arkansas, 1971
  J.D.
  Honors: Associate Editor, Arkansas Law Review, 1969-1970
• Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, 1968
  B.A.

Fraternities/Sororities

• Phi Alpha Delta

Address

400 West Capitol Avenue
Suite 2000
Little Rock, AR 72201-3522

Phones

(501) 370-1517 (Direct Dial)

Faxes

(501) 376-2147

Emails

Contact Us

Websites

http://www.fridayfirm.com