Each year, Law Day is the day set aside to celebrate the law and its importance in our lives. It is our role as lawyers to enhance public understanding of the law and the role it plays in maintaining a fair and just society. Although Law Day has been celebrated nationally on May 1 since 1958, Law Day has a special significance for those of us admitted to practice in Oklahoma – Law Day had its inception in our state when Seminole lawyer Hicks Epton launched the “Know Your Courts, Know Your Rights” initiative in the early 1950s. It is our turn to proudly carry this tradition forward.

This year’s theme is “The Constitution’s Promise: Out of Many, One.” This theme has guided us to think about our civic duties as well as our professional responsibility as lawyers to take a proactive stance in educating the public. Law Day is a time for all of us to think about the framework that unites us as citizens.

As we take this moment to reflect on these principles, we can also take pride in that for nearly 50 years, the OBA has celebrated Law Day by hosting the Ask A Lawyer community service event, sponsoring educational content aimed at public audiences and holding art and writing contests for Oklahoma students in pre-K through 12th grade.

ASK A LAWYER

Every year, on May 1, Oklahomans are offered the opportunity to speak to a licensed attorney on any topic at no cost. We provide phone banks of lawyers standing by to take calls or answer questions submitted via email. Dozens of lawyer volunteers from around the state participate each year, answering hundreds of questions. No topic is off-limits! Although the main phone banks are set up in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, nonmetro communities are encouraged to participate as well. In 2025, lawyers in Beaver, Bartlesville, Enid, Hugo, Stillwater and Stilwell served their communities by hosting Ask A Lawyer call-in events for at least part of the day.

Not only are these days important for helping the public, but they are also fun! Volunteering together provides a great opportunity for meaningful engagement with friends and colleagues. We hope you will consider participating in this pro bono justice event in the future or coordinating and hosting a local event that will serve your community in 2026. We would love to help you get started!

EDUCATIONAL CONTENT

The celebration of Law Day allows bar members to reaffirm our commitment to foundational principles, such as the checks and balances of power enshrined in our Constitution. While we celebrate the freedoms we enjoy under this governing framework, it is also critical that all citizens understand how the three branches of government function in order to participate effectively in government. For 2025, we have focused on creating new video content that highlights education related to the Oklahoma courts. The videos feature several volunteer Oklahoma judges and lawyers discussing how our courts function, our state’s judicial selection process and foundational principles – such as the Rule of Law – in engaging, easy-to-understand language. These videos are optimized for viewing on social media and are being shared on the OBA’s channels, including YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. We expect these videos to reach hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans throughout the Law Day season, and they will live on as evergreen content that schools, civic groups and individual viewers can access at any time of the year.

Digital educational content is one of many ways OBA members are reaching the public. The Canadian County Bar Association is partnering with local high schools to allow seniors interested in the legal field to shadow bar members and judges for an afternoon. In Seminole County, which is recognized as the birthplace of Law Day, speakers presented on relevant topics at a local community center on April 30. And several county bar associations – such as Oklahoma, Seminole, Stephens, Tulsa and the Tri-County Bar Association in southeastern Oklahoma – hosted celebration luncheons and other events. We hope your local county bar is thinking of creative ways to get involved in Law Day in 2026!

ART AND WRITING CONTESTS

We believe it is never too early to begin learning these important concepts so that even the youngest students are prepared to be good citizens of our state and nation. This year, 1,569 students from 77 towns and more than 160 schools and homeschool groups entered the contest. More schools and homeschool groups from more towns across Oklahoma entered the contest this year than in any previous year, and more than $4,000 in prize money was awarded to students. You will see some of the award-winning entries that earned top honors beginning on page xx of this journal. You may view all the winning entries on the OBA website at www.okbar.org/lawday. We offer a huge thank you to all the Oklahoma educators, students and their families for participating in this year’s contest. Our hope is that all students who participated not only took pride in their work but also gained a better understanding of our cherished Constitution and how it can help us come together as a united nation.

CONCLUSION

The Rule of Law is how we protect our democratic institutions and our constitutional republic. It provides that everyone is accountable to the law, and no one is above the law. That is something we should celebrate on Law Day and every day, whether you are a lawyer or a layperson. It takes hundreds of volunteers across the state to make each Law Day a success, and we are so grateful to those volunteer judges and lawyers, along with the statewide Law Day Committee, the participating county bars, the Oklahoma County Bar Auxiliary, the OBA Board of Governors and the OBA staff along with the staff at the Oklahoma County and Tulsa County bar associations for their efforts and commitment to support this annual project. Please visit www.okbar.org/lawday to learn more about Law Day and start thinking of ways you or your local county can get involved in this critical public education project next year!

Gov. Kevin Stitt proclaimed May 1 as Law Day in Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court Chief Justice Dustin P. Rowe signed the 2025 Law Day Directive to observe Law Day on May 1 in Oklahoma. View the proclamation here and the directive here. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Mary Clement is a solo attorney practicing in probate and estate planning in Tulsa. She serves as co-chair of the OBA Law Day Committee and also coordinates lawyer volunteers for the Ask A Lawyer event at the Tulsa County Bar Association. She may be reached at mary@clementlegalok.com.

Ed Wunch is the criminal justice debt attorney for Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City. He serves as co-chair of the OBA Law Day Committee, and he has chaired the committee since 2020 after serving as vice chair in 2019. He may be reached at ed.wunch@laok.org.