The Oklahoma Bar Association announced its 2023 officers and new Board of Governors members on Friday, Nov. 4, during the OBA’s 118th Annual Meeting in Oklahoma City. 

Ponca City attorney Brian T. Hermanson will serve as the Oklahoma Bar Association’s 2023 president, following a year as president-elect. He will lead the OBA’s 17-member Board of Governors, which meets monthly and governs the association.  

Hermanson is the district attorney for Kay and Noble counties and has served in this position since 2011. He was vice president of the OBA in 1988, Oklahoma Bar Foundation president in 1993 and chair of the OBA Young Lawyers Division in 1982. He is also a member of the Kay and Noble County Bar Associations, having served as president of the Kay County Bar Association in 1989 and the Noble County Bar Association from 2016 to the present. He has served as chair of the OBA General Practice/Solo and Small Firm, Law Office Management and Technology, and Criminal Law sections and has served three terms as chair of the OBA Litigation Section. He has also served on the OBA Board of Editors and as president of the Oklahoma Chapter of the America Board of Trial Advocates, the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the Oklahoma District Attorneys Association and as chair of the District Attorneys Council.  

Miles T. Pringle of Oklahoma City will serve as president-elect for 2022, and D. Kenyon Williams Jr. of Tulsa will serve as vice president. Tulsa attorney James R. Hicks, who served as the 2022 OBA president, will remain on the OBA Board of Governors for one year as immediate past president. 

Also elected to the OBA Board of Governors to represent Supreme Court Judicial District Nine is Jana L. Knott of El Reno. Nicholas E. Thurman of Ada was elected by acclamation during the OBA Annual Meeting to represent Supreme Court Judicial District Eight. They will serve three-year terms. Timothy Lee Rogers of Tulsa will also serve a three-year term as a member at large. Caroline M. Shaffer Siex of Tulsa will serve a one-year term as OBA Young Lawyers Division chairperson. 

New officers and Board of Governors members will take office Jan. 1, 2023. They will officially be sworn into office Jan. 20, 2023. OBA leadership roles are voluntary positions in which lawyers serve while continuing to practice law. 

The 18,000-member Oklahoma Bar Association, headquartered in Oklahoma City, was created by the Oklahoma Supreme Court to advance the administration of justice and to foster and maintain learning, integrity, competence, public service and high standards of conduct among Oklahoma’s legal community.