G. Spence Fricke

Chad Cumming is a shareholder and director of Gill Ragon Owen, P.A. His practice focuses on the legal needs of Arkansas families and businesses. Chad helps businesses in structuring and documenting finance transactions, asset acquisitions and dispositions, corporate law, securities offerings, real estate development, and general business law. His clients include lenders, small and medium private businesses, real estate developers, the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police, and public entities...

Paul B. Benham III has developed a rich and deep practice over the course of his career. After having clerked for The Honorable Carleton Harris, Chief Justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, he undertook a corporate finance practice, eventually including securities and mergers and acquisitions work. He is listed in Chambers USA for Corporate and Commercial Work and is particularly regarded for his handling of financial matters for banks and secured lenders. The Best Lawyers in America has reco...

Chip Chiles is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a Member of the American Law Institute. He litigates business-related disputes at trial and on appeal in Arkansas and in other states. Chip has represented some of the world’s leading companies in the insurance, pharmaceutical, chemical, finance, communications, food and beverage, financial, and retail industries. His business-litigation practice has included defending...

Nikki Lovell serves as counsel and close company advisor representing both publicly-held and privately-held companies throughout the United States in mergers and acquisitions, capital raises and general securities compliance. She has extensive experience in representing financial institutions, logistics companies, service companies, professional service providers, real estate companies and insurance companies as both buyers and sellers in merger and acquisition transactions. Nikki’s gen...

Katie Watson Bingham is a partner in the Trust and Estate Planning Practice Group and holds a master’s degree in taxation from the University of Florida. Her areas of practice include estate planning, estate and trust administration, estate and gift taxation, tax planning for individuals, entity formation, probate matters and formation and planning for exempt organizations. Katie also assists clients with a variety of collateral matters that relate to her general practice areas, includi...

Brian C. Smith practices in the firm’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation Practice Group. His practice includes experience in the design, implementation and administration of tax-qualified retirement plans including defined benefit pension plans, profit-sharing plans, 401(k) plans and ESOPs. He also works with nonqualified deferred compensation plans and health and welfare plans for financial institutions, regular business organizations, professional corporations and governmen...

Ms. Beth Echols is a shareholder and director of Gill Ragon Owen, P.A. She was educated at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and University of Arkansas School of Law. Ms. Echols joined the Arkansas Bar in 2002. She served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Benton and Pulaski Counties and then served as staff attorney for the Bella Vista Village Property Owners Association before entering private practice. Her practice focuses on domestic relations and probate litigation. She appears ...

Tom Wyatt’s practice provides comprehensive and cost-effective service to a diverse client portfolio—from individuals to Fortune 500 companies—in litigation matters involving commercial and residential property development, land-use disputes, municipal interface and interference, complex commercial litigation, and products liability defense. Tom has successfully tried cases to the bench and the jury, achieving judgments for his clients that have been affirmed on appeal. Tom ...

Jason Lee is a lawyer recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice areas of Insurance Law, Litigation - Insurance and Personal Injury Litigation - Defendants. Jason practices law in Little Rock, Arkansas Best Lawyers has recognized Jason Lee since 2022. The Best Lawyers recognition is based on a peer-review survey of lawyers in the same geographic region and legal practice area. The recognition reflects the professional regard in which Jason Lee is held by other lawyers.

Thomas P. Leggett has practiced exclusively in the area of public finance since 1976. His practice encompasses bond and other debt offerings issued by or on behalf of the various public instrumentalities in Arkansas and elsewhere. Tom specializes in the public financing of private business projects and has participated in the financing of industrial facilities throughout Arkansas and in a number of other states. His professional experience includes serving as bond counsel for industrial devel...