Pursuant to the Rules of the Oklahoma Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma on Legal Internship and Regulation I (J) promulgated pursuant thereto, it is the responsibility of the Legal Internship Committee to report certain matters to the court on an annual basis. This is the annual report for the year July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008.

The committee is completing the work on a new intern's exam. We will be following up this task with providing standardized testing procedures for the law schools. We hope to put both the new test and standard testing procedures in place by the end of this year. The committee did not issue any formal Rule Interpretations for the period of July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007.

Should the court have any questions about the work of the committee, or proposed activities, please contact me.

In addition to the above report submitted to the Supreme Court, the Board of Governors approved an amendment to Rule 7.6 as follows:

RULE 7.6 CIVIL REPRESENTATION LIMITATIONS

Representation by the Licensed Legal Intern in civil cases is limited in the following manner.

(a) In civil matters where the controversy does not exceed the jurisdictional limit specified in Title 20 Oklahoma Statutes, Section 123(A)(1), exclusive of costs and attorneys fees, a Licensed Legal Intern may appear at all stages without a supervising attorney being present. (See Interpretation 97-2.)

(b) In civil matters where the controversy exceeds the jurisdictional limit specified in Title 20 Oklahoma Statues, Section 1123(A)(1), a Licensed Legal Intern may appear without a supervising attorney present only in the following situations:

(1) Waiver, default, or uncontested divorces.

(2) Friendly suits including settlements of tort claims.

(3) To make an announcement on behalf of a supervising attorney.

(4) Civil motion dockets, provided that a Licensed Legal Intern may prosecute but not defend motions and/or pleadings that may or could be the ultimate or final disposition of the cause of action.

(5) Prosecute or defend contested motions to modify child support orders or decrees except when a change of custody of a minor child is involved. (See Interpretation 89-1.)

(6) Depositions.

(7) Uncontested probate proceedings, provided that the supervising attorney has reviewed and signed the proposed pleading that will be presented to the Judge for approval.

(c) In all other civil legal matters, including but not limited to contested probate, contested divorces and adoption proceedings, and ex-parte matters, such as temporary orders in divorce cases, restraining orders, temporary injunctions, etc., the Licensed Legal Intern shall only appear when accompanied by and under the supervision of an approved supervising attorney. (See Interpretation 91-2, 96-2 and 97-1.)

The following is an account of all of the files in the office of the Licensed Legal Intern Coordinator: During the year from October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008, 131 applicants applied to be Licensed Legal Interns, only 92 of those were actually sworn in. There were 14 swearing in ceremonies at the Supreme Court in Oklahoma City, and 7 of the swearing in ceremonies were held in Tulsa.

The following is a report for the past (4) four years showing the number of interns admitted each year and the law school they were attending.

(*Of the 131 interns that were sworn in, six were after graduates and there were 0 applicants from an accredited law school out of state.)

After removing the 120 files, of those, 94 passed the July, 2008 bar exam, the four who failed, and the 16 who failed to sit for the bar exam after graduating, there remained 115 Licensed Legal Interns on file, with 75 of those active, 11 inactive, 0 have requested to be reinstated A after failure@ and 29 legal intern applicants that have not completed the application process.

The Licensed Legal Intern Exam subcommittee continues to review the examination process.

Terrell Monks,
Chair