Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has promoted Noah Watson — who was deputy attorney general over the attorney general’s Opinions & Freedom of Information Act Division for more than a year — to deputy solicitor general, Griffin announced Tuesday.
The Republican attorney general said he’s pleased to announce that Watson “will join our excellent Solicitor General team as Deputy Solicitor General.”
“In February, I hired Autumn Patterson as our new Solicitor General, and the addition of Noah to this team makes it one of the best in the country,” Griffin said.
In March, Patterson, the former special assistant solicitor general in the Louisiana attorney general’s office, started work for the Arkansas attorney general’s office and filled the vacancy created at the end of December, after then-Solicitor General Nicholas Bronni was appointed to a two-year term on the Arkansas Supreme Court by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
In 2023, Watson started working in the attorney general’s office in its Special Litigation Section before being promoted to deputy attorney general over Opinions & FOIA, Griffin said.
On Tuesday, Griffin said Watson’s skills in research, writing and advocacy will now be at the state’s service in his new role as he takes on appellate cases at both the state and national levels.
“I love seeing the talented people in my office grow and take on new challenges, and I know Noah will excel as Deputy Solicitor General the way he has in his previous roles,” Griffin said.
Griffin spokesman Jeff LeMaster said Wednesday that Watson’s salary is $183,999.92 a year and Dylan Jacobs, Watson’s predecessor as deputy solicitor general, had the same salary.
LeMaster added that Watson’s salary has not changed with the move to deputy solicitor general.
Griffin said Senior Assistant Attorney General Kelly Summerside will serve as the acting head of the Opinions & FOIA Division.
LeMaster also said Summerside’s salary of $153,999.87 a year is not changing.
Before joining the attorney general’s office, Watson was an associate attorney at Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC in Little Rock, according to the attorney general’s office. Before that, he served as a law clerk for Judge Lavenski Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Watson graduated from Harding University and the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.
The Office of Solicitor General is responsible for handling Arkansas’ appellate and high-profile national litigation, helping shape both state and national jurisprudence, according to the attorney general’s office.
