Lowenhaupt eventually separated his family’s law firms from the advisory business to make clear what hats the firms were wearing.
Mason still has his law practice and was even called up in 2011 to fill out the term of a sitting judge in Arkansas at the same time he was running his investment practice. “The governor’s office called and asked are you interested in this 18-month appointment as a trial judge,” Mason says. “This particular position involved a drug court. It’s a diversion type court out of the criminal justice system. I have done hundreds of criminal cases and I was passionate about changing the system. I felt like too many people were being put in jail. … In Arkansas we have filled up our jails many times over.”
How does one navigate the ethical channels while sitting on a judge’s bench while also running an investment firm? “What you have to do is get a judicial ethics opinion,” Mason says. “As to whether or not you can maintain that side business while you’re a sitting judge. So you’ve got to do that process. The short story is as long as you’re not dealing with clients who would come before you, then you can do that. Had I not been able to do that, I obviously would not have taken that job.”