Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Thursday that she will appoint Kevin Crass to the board of trustees of the University of Arkansas.
Crass will replace Charles Gibson and his term will expire on March 1, 2033.
Crass was executive director of Sanders' transition team.
"He helped lay the foundation for my administration to hit the ground running on day one with bold, conservative reforms that empower all Arkansans," Sanders said in a news release. "I am confident that his strong leadership, character, and experience will make him an invaluable member of the Board of Trustees."
When asked why he wanted to be on the UA board of trustees, Crass responded in an email, "I have served on War Memorial Stadium Commission, UALR Board of Visitors and UAMS Foundation Fund Board. In those roles, I interacted with UA officials and Board. I also serve on Ouachita Baptist University President's Advisory Council.
"I have developed an interest in supporting higher education in our state," he continued. "My college and law school experiences provided me with an opportunity to follow my dream of being a lawyer. The challenges of higher education are enormous with downward pressures on enrollment and upward pressures on the cost. I look forward to working with the Board and the administration to address these challenges."
Crass is a senior partner in the litigation practice group at Friday, Eldredge & Clark LLP in Little Rock. He focuses his practice on significant, complex business litigation in federal and state court, according to the release.
Crass has extensive experience in handling the defense of national and state class actions in state and federal courts.
"He also provides clients with representation before governmental bodies and counsels them in regulatory matters," according to the release. "Kevin has served as personal counsel to several of the state's constitutional officers."
Alexa Henning, a spokeswoman for the governor's office, said Crass will represent Arkansas' 4th Congressional District. He is from Pine Bluff and lives in Little Rock, according to his Facebook page.
Under Arkansas Code Annotated 6-64-201, the board of trustees of the University of Arkansas "shall consist" of 10 members. The governor appoints the trustees, who serve for a term of 10 years.
Two board members "shall be appointed from" each of the state's four congressional districts, according to the state law. Two other board members shall be appointed from the state at large. And the two at-large members shall not reside in the same congressional district.
The state law appears to have no residency requirement beyond the two at-large members not residing in the same congressional district.
Crass played basketball in high school in Pine Bluff. His team won the state championship in 1977, with 30 wins and one loss, he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a 2018 interview.
Crass landed a basketball scholarship to Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, where he graduated in 1981.
He earned a law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1984.
Crass went to work in 1982 as a summer law clerk at the Friday firm and has remained with that firm ever since.
He began going to UALR Trojan basketball games in 1981 and became a supporter of the team.
According to the 2018 article in the Democrat-Gazette, Crass served as a personal attorney for former Gov. Mike Huckabee, who is Sanders' father.
Mike Huckabee and Crass became friends, hunting together and spending time with their families, according to the article.
"I think the world of Gov. Huckabee," Crass said in 2018 of Mike Huckabee. "I watched his children grow up and helped them some along the way when they had issues -- nothing serious."
He noted the role of Huckabee's daughter, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was then White House press secretary for President Donald Trump.
"It's tough to watch her take the criticism that she's taking," Crass said in 2018. "I just think the world of Sarah -- I watched her grow up and I know her husband and they're just good folks. They're just in a high profile position with a very difficult president."
"He's just a very humble, gracious but incredibly smart guy," Mike Huckabee said of Crass in 2018. "Kevin is one of those attorneys who tend to be understated in a lot of ways but he's always the one that people want to talk to. He's very thoughtful and deliberate when he's giving advice and it's easy to get all excited and become impetuous -- he's very unlike me in some of those respects which was very helpful."
Crass' legal representation of Mike Huckabee led to Crass being retained as a lawyer for the Bush-Cheney campaign, according to the 2018 article.
Because of his work on that national campaign, Crass was asked if there were any appointments he might be interested in. That's how he came to be appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which he served on for several years.
Crass worked as an intern for U.S. Rep. Kaneaster Hodges, D-Newport, the summer after his freshman year at Ouachita.
"I don't think I'd ever even been on an airplane," Crass said in the 2018 interview. "I loaded up a bag and lived in Washington for a summer and it was just an eye-opening experience for me."
Razorbacks standout U.S. Reed, who played basketball with Crass in Pine Bluff, remembered him as a team player.
"If you watch the series Star Trek, you always have a logical one -- that was a Mr. Spock -- so he was our Mr. Spock on the basketball team," Reed told the Democrat-Gazette in 2018. "Our team had many talents but he was the one who would give us the big shots for the games and he was a real important person on our basketball team for how he thought things out. He was a real smart guy and he's smart today."
Crass previously served on the board of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals Bar Association. He also previously served on the Federal Practice Committee for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, having been appointed by the judges in that district.
Crass and his wife, Cathy, endowed a scholarship at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville for students from Jefferson and Pulaski counties.