New Events Planned for Year Ahead
By Bill Conger

As I begin my year as president of the Oklahoma Bar Association, I want to express the distinct honor and privilege it is for me to serve as president. We have just completed a very successful year under the leadership of past President Stephen Beam. The Annual Meeting had the second largest attendance in the history of our association, and the programs and other events could not have been better. The financial health of the association is excellent. This past year the Oklahoma Bar Foundation awarded more than $800,000 in grants, a historic high, and the winners were the poor, women and children. Our bar foundation does so much for the citizens of our state. If you are not a Fellow, join now. You will be better off for it.

We have much to be excited about for the coming year. Last year Stephen Beam’s first letter started us out on a somber note discussing the alarming number of lawyer suicides in Oklahoma. His concern was well founded, and I continue to share that same concern. That is why I intend to emphasize work/life balance during the coming year. Melanie Jester ably chairs our Work/Life Balance Committee, and over the past two years that committee has done much to develop a culture of work/life balance. They have conducted numerous seminars, and the Web site. In addition to the work/life balance, we have an award-winning mental health program associated with our Lawyers Helping Lawyers Committee.

Many of you attended the outstanding session at our Annual Meeting covering the wrongful convictions of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz for the murder of Ada cocktail waitress Debra Sue Carter. The panel, moderated by Judge Ed Cunningham, was superb. I, and many others, came away from that session believing that our profession should be in the forefront of creating improvements to our system of justice to minimize the possibility of a wrongful conviction. To that end, I intend to create a task force to study the issue and to make recommendations how we, as an association, can better address the problem.

We must continue to educate our citizens about the importance of an independent judiciary and the rule of law. I intend to speak and write on these topics throughout the year. Jack Brown is putting together a Rule of Law Conference to be held at Oklahoma City University in the spring. Distinguished speakers from all segments of the community are expected to attend.

We need to plan for the future of our bar association and to identify and develop future bar leaders. I have asked Linda Thomas of Bartlesville and Laura McConnell of Oklahoma City to chair a task force to develop a curriculum for a Leadership Academy to begin in the fall of 2008. The purpose of the academy is to teach young lawyers about our profession, its governance and how our system of justice affects so many aspects of our society.

As most of you know, we are in the middle of a long overdue renovation of the bar center. The anticipated cost is approximately $2 million, which will be paid from existing dues and reserve funds. The project began last fall with asbestos abatement, and we are on schedule for completion in May 2008.

As we begin this new year, we are excited about the coming events. I close, however, on a sad note. Our hearts go out to the family of Jim Lang and Sharon Corbitt and the partners and employees of Sneed Lang. Jim and Sharon’s tragic deaths in December were a blow to all of us. They were wonderful lawyers and faithful contributors to our profession. Both will be sorely missed.

Sincerely,

To contact President Conger, e-mail him at bconger@okcu.edu