Gary "Bud" Ray Roberts, the new head of the ABC
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On February
19, 2015, Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson announced that he had appointed a
Benton attorney, Bud Roberts, to be the new director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control
Division in the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. Roberts is one
of the founding partners of the Little Rock law firm where the governor’s son, W.
Asa Hutchinson III, is “of counsel” ¹.
Gary ”Bud” Ray
Roberts, founded the Roberts Law Firm, P.A, with his brother Michael “Mike” L.
Roberts back in 1990. According to the firm’s web page:
“Roberts Law Firm was founded in 1990 on the principle that business
clients deserve powerful, sophisticated
representation that augments rather than depletes their bottom line. That
standard
guides
the firm every day — with every client, from domestic corporate clients to
those in EasterN Europe,
the Middle East and the Far East”.
However, something
happened in 2009 and Bud left the firm. What led to his abrupt departure?
We cannot
say for certain as little information is available, but research revealed that around
the time of his separation from the firm, a former client made a less than
stellar review of his legal representation:
“When
I hired Mr. Roberts, I paid him in full. Mistake!!!! I have never experienced
such an
unprofessional
demeanor. He WILL not return phone calls or answer emails. I hired him in
February
and in April when I wanted to know what was going on with my case, I had to
call the
opposing
attorney for info. By the way the opposing attorney had not spoken or received
any
correspondence
from him since the day I hired him. Still till this day, he refuses to call me
back.
In fact if you call his phone, 9 times out of 10, you can’t even leave a
message due to
the
fact his voice mail is full. He did call me over a month ago to say he was
sorry he didn’t
get
back to me, but he been on a 4 week vacation. He did not know what was going on
with
my
case, but said he would call me the next day with information. That was over a
month ago.
He
still has not called me back”.
Nightmare Experience posted by Dena, an Identity Theft
client on www.avvo.com.
Was he really
on an extended vacation at some exotic location he could not bear to leave, or was
he in rehab?
The average
length of a vacation in the United States is just four days (15.7 is the number
of vacation days American full-timers get after 25 years on the job), while the
average length of stay in a drug detox program is 90 days. You do the math.
No record
was found of any disciplinary action taken by the Arkansas Office of the
Committee on Professional Conduct, but that does not mean complaints were not
filed. The Arkansas Office of
Professional Conduct is prohibited from releasing information regarding complaints
except for Disciplinary Decisions.
Governor
Hutchinson issued the following statement on Bud Roberts:
“I
am pleased to announce Bud Roberts as the new Director of Alcoholic Beverage
Control. Bud’s breadth of experience in
Arkansas law, in addition to the knowledge he possesses of the issues related
to ABC, makes him the right choice as new director.”
Saline
County was a dry county with Dizzy’s Grill & Bistro becoming the first
restaurant in Benton to obtain a private club license in 2007. In 2008,
Applebee’s became the second restaurant in Benton to be approved for alcohol
sales despite being in dry Saline County.
Other establishments in Benton that served alcohol at that time included
a VFW club, a Moose Lodge and a country club. Since 2008 only 29 private club
permits were issued for Saline County. In November 2014 residents voted it
wet. Then in January 2015, 46 new permits were issued for
Saline County stores, restaurants and hotels to sell alcohol. Such sales had
not been permitted in Saline County since 1936.
So unless
Bud represented one or more of these 29 establishments before the Alcoholic
Beverage Control Board for some violation (doubtful), his knowledge of issues
related to them would be slim to none.
A review of
cases where Roberts is listed as attorney of record here in Arkansas for the
past several years indicates that Bud’s experience in Arkansas law has
primarily been in handling divorce cases.
Bud’s
knowledge with issues related to ABC seem to be limited to the servers at Twin
Peaks Bar & Grill in Little Rock 2 and his hobby of collecting
bottle openers 3.
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| Bud's favorite server at Twin Peaks as listed on his Facebook page |
Prior to or
sometime after leaving the firm founded with his brother, Bud appears to have
relocated back to his hometown of Dumas, or to Kitsap County, Washington for a
while where divorce cases appear to have been his bread and butter 4. Bud appears to have gotten a divorce himself
up there in Kitsap County, WA. Maybe it
was because he enjoyed playing Frisbee golf with the West Sound Disc Golf Association
more than he should have.
For some
reason (divorce?) Bud returned to Arkansas and opened a solo law practice in
Benton. From all indicators he lived and worked out a small wood fame home at
112 S. 2
nd Street.
It also
appears that Bud supplemented his income from his limited law practice with a side
business involving yo-yo’s and brass knuckles
5. As an attorney with a “breadth of experience”,
Bud should be aware that his possession of metal knuckles is illegal pursuant
to Arkansas Code § 5-73-104.
One wonders
how and why Governor Hutchinson really selected Bud for this position. Could it have been a simple return of a favor
for a struggling attorney whose brother’s law firm is where his son hangs out? According
to published campaign contribution information for the 2014 Arkansas Governor’s
race, Bud Roberts gave Hutchinson $4,000.00 and his brother Mike and his wife,
Deborah, gave $8,000.00. Not a bad investment for a job that pays around
$100,000.00 a year.
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¹ According to an American Bar
Association Formal Opinion 90-357, the term “of counsel” is to describe a
“close, personal, continuous, and regular relationship” between the firm and
counsel lawyer. Putting the name of the attorney “of counsel” on a law firm’s
stationary gives the office prestige of the lawyer’s name and reputation, without
requiring his/her full-time presence.
2
https://www.facebook.com/bud.roberts.94?fref=ts
3 https://www.facebook.com/bud.roberts.94?fref=ts
4 http://dw.courts.wa.gov
5 https://www.flickr.com/photos/34529794@N06
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