Brandon James Harrison was raised in Fort Smith, Arkansas. He graduated from the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. He then graduated with a juris doctor degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law. As a law student, Judge Harrison served as Executive Editor for the Arkansas Law Review. Before being elected to serve on the Court of Appeals, Judge Harrison practiced law for nine years and served as law clerk to a United States District Judge in the Eastern District of Arkansas for one year.
Judge Harrison has presented many continuing-legal-education programs on appellate practice and procedure and legal writing. He served six years on the Arkansas Supreme Court’s Civil Practice Committee while an attorney and currently serves on the Arkansas Supreme Court’s Committee on Child Support.
The judge has also been a member of the Advisory Editorial Board for The Arkansas Lawyer since 2010 and received the Maurice Cathey Award in 2018 for contributions to the periodical, which is published quarterly by the Arkansas Bar Association. Judge Harrison is a member of the Sebastian County Bar Association, the Arkansas Bar Association, and a sustaining fellow of the Arkansas Bar Foundation.
Judge Harrison’s writings have been published in The Arkansas Lawyer, the Arkansas Law Review, and by the American Bar Association. He also wrote a chapter in the Arkansas Bar Association’s Handling Appeals in Arkansas practice handbook and helps prepare its annual supplements. The judge has also co-authored numerous cumulative pocket parts for a book on Arkansas practice and procedure published by Thomson Reuters (West).