Best Lawyers in Arkansas, United States for Real Estate Law
Jill Grimsley concentrates her practice in the areas of public and commercial finance and real estate. She has extensive experience representing a variety of issuers, borrowers, underwriters and trustees in tax-exempt and taxable public and private bond finance transactions. She serves as counsel to banks, financial institutions and companies on a variety of lending and transactional matters, including complex commercial, project development, and real estate. Jill has been a presenter at semi...
Jim Smith is a founding partner of Smith Hurst, PLC. Jim’s practice experience is extensive and spans the full range of business advisory and transactional law. He routinely counsels companies across diverse industries in a myriad of business matters including capital raising, advising Boards of Directors, senior management, executives and controlling shareholders regarding governance and fiduciary duty matters, compliance with regulatory obligations, ordinary course of business contrac...
Rebecca Hurst is a founding partner and the Managing Partner of Smith Hurst, PLC. Originally focusing her legal practice on estate planning and philanthropic endeavors of high net worth individuals and families who have amassed their wealth from family business activities, over the past decade Ms. Hurst’s practice has naturally evolved to not only represent her clients in their estate planning and philanthropic endeavors but also in their business, corporate and real estate activities. ...
James M. Saxton represents real estate developers, owners, property managers, tenants, financial institutions and investors involved in commercial and retail development projects in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Tennessee and Texas. He assists clients with all types of transactions from routine purchase agreements to complicated development plans, companies locating new facilities in the state, multi-state sales, acquisition and financing construction...
Cliff McKinney is a nationally recognized real estate attorney with more than 20 years of experience advising sophisticated clients in complex real estate, land use, and business transactions across Arkansas and the mid-South. Cliff is part of the firm’s real estate practice, representing Fortune 500 companies, institutional investors, developers, and high-net-worth individuals in multimillion-dollar deals, entitlement strategy, and regulatory compliance. Cliff’s transactional exp...
Bryan W. Duke is a partner in the firm’s Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group. His diverse corporate practice focuses on representing individuals, companies and financial institutions in general business, transactional and regulatory matters. He has handled transactions in a variety of industries including the banking, broadcasting, retail, manufacturing, real estate, technology and health care industries. He assists companies in corporate finance matters, the placement of debt and e...
Harry Hamlin has over 20 years of experience advising numerous financial institutions, business entities, REITs and individual clients in all aspects of commercial transactions including complex lending and contractual matters as well as the conveyance, purchase, development and leasing of real property. He also counsels clients on municipal finance, tax exempt, tax credit and 1031 transactions. His expertise in securing liquor permits from the Alcohol Beverage Control division is invaluable ...
Jeb Joyce focuses his practice on a broad range of transactional matters, with a concentration in commercial real estate and commercial finance. He represents both lenders and borrowers in the negotiation and closing of commercial loans and also regularly provides transactional legal opinions. Mr. Joyce has extensive experience advising clients on commercial lease agreements for both landlords and tenants, real estate conveyances, and formation and governance of horizontal property regimes. I...
Christopher L. Travis is a lawyer recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice areas of Appellate Practice and Real Estate Law. Christopher L. practices law in Little Rock, Arkansas Best Lawyers has recognized Christopher L. Travis since 2026. 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 Christopher L. Travis is held by other lawyers.
Melissa Bandy advises businesses and individuals on commercial transaction matters including lending, real estate, corporate governance, entity formation and general business. She also represents restaurants, retailers and hotels in securing liquor permits from the Alcohol Beverage Control Division.
Mr. Aaron Heffington is a shareholder and director of Gill Ragon Owen, P.A. He received his undergraduate degree in Finance and Information Systems Management from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 2010. Mr. Heffington graduated cum laude from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law and joined the Arkansas bar in 2013. From contract and real estate litigation to corporate planning, Mr. Heffington’s legal practice focuses on his clients’ business n...
Jay T. Taylor is a partner in the firm’s Real Estate and Commercial Transactions Practice Group and serves as chair of the firm’s Tax Credit practice. His practice is concentrated on complex commercial financing transactions, with particular depth in state and federal tax credit incentive structures. For nearly twenty years, Jay has structured and closed transactions nationwide involving New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC), representing project sponsors, qualified active low-income com...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.
