Speaker Bios - Public Benefits Law and Low-Income Arkansans
The Promise of Justice Conference
November 13, 2009
Little Rock, AR
Public Benefits Law and Low-Income Arkansans
Speaker Bios
Zina Frazier
B.A., 1986, Hendrix College
J.D., 1989, Whittier College School of Law
Ms. Frazier was appointed to the Access to Justice Commission in 2004 by Governor Mike Huckabee.
Ms. Frazier has been with the Center for Arkansas Legal Services (CALS) for over ten years. As the Managing Attorney for the HelpLine, she oversees the telephone hotline that provides counsel, legal advice, and brief service to low-income Arkansans. She collaborates in the continuing development of CALS’ on-line self-help materials for pro se litigants. Ms. Frazier has developed evaluation standards for the American Association of Retired Persons, which are used nationally by its legal hotlines. She served as a grant examiner for the Administration on Aging, assessing grant applications for a technology/hotline grant. She is a contributor to the Arkansas Bar Association’s “Caregiver’s Guide.” Prior to joining CALS, she was in private practice in Little Rock.
Ms. Frazier has been a member of the Arkansas Bar Association since 1996. She is involved in the Volunteers in Public Schools program, the Boy Scouts of America, and was a Children’s Ministry Volunteer with Agape Church in Little Rock.
Kim Holman
B. A. Political Science, Millsaps College, 1990
J.D., UALR - Bowen School of Law, 1996
Kim Holman is an Attorney Advisor for the Social Security Administration, Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. Before taking her job at SSA, Ms. Holman worked for more than ten years in the Little Rock office of the Center for Arkansas Legal Services (CALS), first as a staff attorney and then as managing attorney. She was also for two years the executive director of Arkansas Volunteer Lawyers for the Elderly. Prior to becoming an attorney, Ms. Holman was a paralegal with Legal Services of Arkansas.
Charis Langston
Paralegal Certificate, South Central Career College, 1989
B.S. Interdisciplinary Studies, Arkansas State University, 2003
Charis Langston is a paralegal and pro bono coordinator in the Jonesboro office of Legal Aid of Arkansas. She has 17 years’ experience in legal aid. She handles primarily SSD/SSI cases and other public benefits cases.
She has also been employed with a local private attorney, where her primary job duties were filing and following up on collection cases for a local credit bureau.
Mike Shinn
B. A. History, Hendrix College, 1975
J.D., UALR-School of Law, 1987
Mike Shinn is a staff attorney in the Fort Smith office of the Center for Arkansas Legal Services (CALS). He has been a legal aid attorney for 20 years. Between 1995 and 1997, Mr. Shinn entered private practice at Smith, Norwood & Shinn. Before becoming an attorney, he was a historian with the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. He is a member of the Sebastian County and Arkansas Bar Associations.
