Giving back to his community through service is nothing new for Matt Brown, a member of the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts Class of 2000.
As an attorney, Brown has served as coach for Conway High School’s mock trial team and worked with youth in the Faulkner County Teen Court. He was a member of the Conway Planning Commission, helping guide the city’s growth. He’s also served as a Justice of the Peace on the Faulkner County Quorum Court.
Recently he added the title of state representative to his list of accomplishments, becoming a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, representing District 55, which includes a large portion of Conway. He was officially sworn in during a ceremony on Jan. 9.
While officially becoming a member of the 94th Arkansas General Assembly was exciting, what made it memorable was having his family there with him, in particular his grandmother.
“What was special to me that day was the fact that my 91-year-old grandmother — the daughter of dirt-poor, Depression-era sharecroppers with only an eighth-grade education herself and the matriarch of a large extended family — got to come to the Capitol and see me, one of only a handful of people in my family to go to college, the first person in my family to get a graduate degree, and the first person in my family to ever run for office, get sworn into office. I thought it was kind of cool, and I only wish my Grandpa could have been there to see it as well,” Brown said.
Several people with ties to ASMSA have served in the state Legislature. A few include David Rainey, who was the school’s director from 1993 to 1995 and later served as a state representative; Johnnie Roebuck, a state representative and educator from Arkadelphia who was appointed to the school’s inaugural Board of Trustees and served throughout the 1990s; Charlie Cole Chaffin, who co-sponsored the bill that created ASMSA as a state senator and later taught chemistry at ASMSA; and Steve Faris, who served on the school’s Board of Visitors after several terms as a state representative and state senator.
Brown said being elected to the state House of Representatives was “a case of being at the right place at the right time.” He had not originally planned to run for the seat in 2022. Brown was serving as a Justice of the Peace on the Faulkner County Quorum Court when candidates began announcing their intentions.
The state went through a redistricting as the result of the 2020 Census, changing the lines for districts in both the state Senate and House. Spencer Hawks, who previously served as District 70 Representative, announced he was going to run for the state Senate, leaving the seat without an incumbent. The new District 55 included almost Brown’s entire JP district.
“I also ended up being the only elected official living within District 55 who was in a position to run for the seat. I thought that if I didn’t at least try, I’d probably always regret it and would always wonder ‘what if,’ so I threw my hat in the ring, and the rest is history,” the Republican legislator said.
After graduating from ASMSA, Brown attended Hendrix followed by the Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Before coming to ASMSA, Brown had a passing interest in law but was keener on medical school.
“AP Chemistry at ASMSA soon disabused me of that notion,” Brown said. “But while I was at ASMSA, I discovered that I had a talent for research and writing, which in turn led me to the humanities and ultimately to a legal career. The classes that had the biggest impact on my future, without a doubt, were the writing classes, both for college, law school and my career as I practically write for a living now.”
His work focuses primarily on corporate, banking and real estate law. Brown has enjoyed politics since middle school, but serving as a state representative wasn’t initially on his list of goals. He planned to eventually seek a district or circuit court judge position, both of which are elected positions in Arkansas.
“Therefore, I got involved in local politics both because I liked politics and to also try to start learning the political process and to start making connections for a possible eventual judge run,” said Brown, whose initial foray into government was as a member of the Conway Planning Commission. “When the Justice of the Peace seat opened up for my district, I thought that there could be no better way to learn how to run a campaign for office than to actually run for office. So I ran for Justice of the Peace and won (in 2020).”
Brown expects his experience on the Conway Planning Commission and the Faulkner County Quorum Court to help him with his General Assembly duties. The Planning Commission holds public hearings on zoning and planning issues in order to make recommendations to the Conway City Council. His experience on the quorum court has provided opportunities to balance a budget, set policy, pass laws and perform other duties that will be similar in the state Legislature.
“I feel like I’ve got a head start on someone coming into the Legislature with no government experience, though I anticipate there will still be a serious learning curve now that I’m at the next level,” Brown said.
A three-day orientation in December where the new legislators had an opportunity to meet the House staff, learn where everything is and get a preview of what to expect helped Brown kick off the session on the right foot. There was only one hiccup during the first week, which involved parking at the state Capitol that is notorious for how limited it is.
“I was almost late to the second day of the session (the governor’s inauguration day) because someone had illegally parked in my assigned parking space, thus forcing me to have to find a place to park on the street about two blocks away from the Capitol. I had to jog in my dress shoes back to the Capitol, but made it in the nick of time,” Brown said.
In December, Brown dropped in for a visit at ASMSA, the first time he had been back on campus in almost 20 years. He took a tour of campus, letting him see buildings that had been built or remodeled since his time as a student, and had lunch with a few instructors with whom he had built connections during his time as a student.
Although he may not have visited campus for an extended time, he credits his time at the school for leading him to where he is today.
“I think I can safely say that but for ASMSA, I likely wouldn’t be where I am today,” Brown said. “Although I did well academically at my home high school, I never really fit in and was never part of the whole high school ‘scene.’ I just really felt like I was going through the motions until graduation.
“ASMSA changed all of that. I went from a school with 1,200 students to one with only 200, from being just another anonymous face in the crowd to being a part of a community. ASMSA taught me how to come out of my shell, taught me how to get along with people from all kinds of backgrounds and taught me how to be confident. I really feel like the school did more to make me the person I am today than any other school I ever attended.”