The charge of the Awards Committee is to promote participation in the annual OBA awards process, to review nominees and make recommendations to the OBA Board of Governors and to consider any changes to the current awards given or to recommend new awards. The committee met at the Oklahoma Bar Center in Oklahoma City twice this year, once in the spring and again in the fall. Teleconferencing was available for the spring meeting. Since nominees are selected at the fall meeting, all members of the committee are asked to attend in person to facilitate discussion of all nominees.

This year, the committee, made up of 38 members in addition to a liaison from each of the Board of Governors and the Young Lawyers Division of the OBA, was chaired by Gary C. Clark. Reneé Hildebrant served as the vice chair of the committee. In its spring meeting held on April 9, 2008, the committee reviewed the awards previously given, the rules pertaining to submission of nominations and made plans for seeking nominations for awards to be given at the Annual Meeting in 2008. At the conclusion of the spring meeting, the committee voted unanimously to recommend to the OBA Board of Governors that the OBA present the same awards as presented in 2007 with no changes. The Board of Governors approved this recommendation.

The committee actively sought nominations through publicity in various newspapers and through advertisements in the Oklahoma Bar Journal and on the OBA Web site. Members of the committee also made personal contact with all presidents of the county bar associations seeking nominations. We also contacted nominators for persons not selected for awards last year, encouraging them to consider re-nominating the nominee.

After the nominations were received, they were made available by Carol Manning and her staff to all committee members through downloads from a private page on the OBA Web site or through the mail for those requesting a copy by mail.

At the fall meeting, all nominations were discussed and compared with the particular award criteria. A vote was then taken on the committee’s selection for final nominees for each of the awards. In a few cases, the committee moved a nominee from one category to another where the criteria seemed more applicable. The committee tries very hard to make certain that the final nominees are the best the OBA has to offer.

This year, the committee received many excellent nominations that were all reviewed by the committee in advance of the fall meeting held on Sept. 4, 2008. At that meeting, the committee selected the nominees to be submitted to the Board of Governors for its approval. All of these recommendations were approved by the Board of Governors and these awards will be presented at the OBA Annual Meeting.

With these recommendations, the work of the Awards Committee for 2008 was completed. Service on this committee is an honor and a joy given the outstanding members of the bar who are nominated and selected each year. When the public perception of lawyers suffers, it is a pleasure to hold up for public honor and recognition the best and brightest among our peers. The committee encourages members of the bar to nominate deserving attorneys and institutions when nominations are sought next year.