Price C. Gardner has been named as a 2021 Distinguished Alumni by the UA Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. The Anniversary Gala, held on Friday, Oct. 21, served as the stage for the induction, where colleagues, family, and friends joined him to celebrate the occasion.
Price, who serves as Friday, Eldredge & Clark's Managing Partner, was honored in a video by his predecessors Shep Russell and Byron Eiseman.
"Price has shown a great commitment to the practice of law and you can evidence that every day as a member of Friday, Eldredge & Clark. He is the first one there in the morning and the last one to leave," Shep said.
Price earned his Juris Doctor from what is now the UA at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law in 1988. During his time as a student, he served as managing editor of the UALR Law Review. Following graduation from law school, he obtained an LL.M in Taxation from the University of Florida Levin College of Law.
Price joined Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP, in 1989 and named managing partner in 2019. Earlier this year, the firm received the Olivia Farrell Gender Equity Leadership Award from the Women's Foundation of Arkansas, recognizing its commitment to the values of equality and equity and its efforts to create and foster a gender-equitable business environment. Also this year, the firm created the Friday Forward Fellowship to increase the number of law school students from diverse backgrounds by providing financial aid to attend an LSAT prep course and a mentorship with a firm attorney during their undergraduate and law school careers.
A 1984 graduate of Arkansas State University and four-year letterman in football, Gardner continues to be actively involved with the university. In 2017, he was appointed to the Arkansas State University System Board of Trustees by Governor Hutchinson. This year Price began his term as chairman of the board and has overseen the completion of the Henderson State University merger into the ASU System and the board's expansion from five members to seven.
In addition, Price and his wife, Sara, have established the Price and Sara Gardner Pre-Law Scholarship at Arkansas State University to help students interested in pursuing a career in law.
Price is recognized for his expertise in tax, real estate, and transactional law. Recent projects include the formation of Delta Peanut, LLC in Northeast, Arkansas, a farmer-owned peanut processing and marketing company serving more than 80 family farms in Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana, and the acquisition of The Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, LLC (CTEH) by Montrose Environmental in a transaction valued at $280 million.
Price is a Certified Public Accountant (inactive) and a member of Fifty for the Future, the Arkansas and American Bar Associations, the Arkansas Society of Certified Public Accountants, the Arkansas Repertory Theatre Board, and the Red Wolves Foundation. He and Sara have two children: Megan Adams, a pharmacist at the Central Arkansas Veterans Hospital, and David Gardner, a first-year law student at Bowen this fall.
