In separate interviews, Gov. Hutchinson and his son Asa Hutchinson III said there was no assistance or recommendations provided in landing the legal business that Asa Hutchinson III provided for the newly recruited firms.
Asa Hutchinson III said his work for TY Garments began in October 2017 and his Risever work began in August 2018 and consists in “obtaining employment-based, non-immigrant visas for some of their employees.” Hutchinson III said his work with Dragon Woodland involves a number of legal matters, but does not include any work related to AEDC or state tax incentives. “My work with Dragon Woodland has been primarily on private contract issues and employment matters,” he said.
Asa Hutchinson III said another Arkansas law firm was first selected by TY Garments over his firm in 2016. Subsequently, the lawyer handling the business left the firm, another firm picked up the business, but TY Garments was dissatisfied with the services and approached him in 2017, he said.
A previous Chinese client of more than a decade referred Risever to Hutchinson’s law firm, he said. Risever referred Dragon Woodland to his firm based on their “positive experience,” he added.
Risever and TY Garments are Chinese-based companies, while Dragon Woodland is owned by a Tennessee family with Chinese roots. Hutchinson III said he has worked with a number of foreign clients since his law firm opened in 2008, including clients in Cambodia, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, and the Philippines.
When asked if he believed that a possible conflict of interest exists due to his father recruiting these companies to Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson III responded by email: “Absolutely not. None of these clients have ever hired or paid me or my firm to perform any work, or to gain any advantage, related to applying for or securing any tax incentives or benefits from the State or any of its agencies whatsoever. My father does not have any ownership or financial interest in my law firm. No tax dollars, incentives, or rebates, nor public monies of any kind, have ever been awarded to any client of my firm due to anything I have done nor due to my representation of the client, which representation has been strictly limited to federal or other unrelated matters. I have never represented any client whatsoever in connection with AEDC or any of its tax incentives. It is well-documented from publicly available information that these three clients qualified to earn the available tax incentives from AEDC based upon the amount of financial investments they are making in Arkansas and the number of new jobs they are creating here.
“These clients did not hire me because my father is Governor. They engaged my legal services because of my reputation in the profession and in their communities, and in the cases of Risever and TY Garments, also because there are very few Arkansas attorneys with my level of experience working on employment-based visas. Since I began practicing law 18 ½ years ago, I have met hundreds of clients and potential clients in other countries around the globe, and I have dedicated a large part of my professional time to maintaining those relationships by traveling to those countries and spending time with people at my own expense. I had a strong and vibrant immigration and international practice well before my father was elected Governor, and have numerous foreign clients outside of China. I have been successful in obtaining a number of visas for key employees of Risever and TY Garments, and I continue to work for these companies on additional visa applications in support of their expansions in Arkansas.”
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