Jim Hannah

He won election as Chancery Judge of the 17th District in 1979, and held the position until 1999, when he was nominated to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Born in the Naval Hospital in Long Beach, California, while his father was in the United States Navy during World War II.

Hannah moved with his parents to Harrison, Arkansas, in 1960, where his family operated a soft-drink bottle company.

[citation needed] Hannah operated a private law practice in Searcy for ten years.

[2][3] In 2011, he presided over oral arguments at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, almost 50 years after earning a JD from the institution.

Hannah was interested in federalism, and the role state supreme courts play in citizen's daily lives.