Plus Articles

The Sale Leaseback: Another Tool in the Toolbox
Looking back on my law school career, my securities class was one of the most valuable classes I took, but not for the reason you would suspect. I am not a securities lawyer, and I have never wanted to build a securities practice. I have, however, routinely used the information I learned in that class as a way to ground myself in another area of law, build on a base understanding of another concept or provide insights into a certain way of thinking on a related topic. I have used what I learned in that class exactly how the professor hoped we would – as a tool in my proverbial legal toolbox to provide value to clients by providing counsel beyond their original request and to exceed their expectations.

Through the Tapestry of Life
Throughout humanity’s unfolding story, death has been one of the few constants. “Death comes for all of us.”1 Despite humanity’s long history and familiarity with death, the end-of-life experience is still laden with complexity. How death happens and why are questions that invite more questions than answers. The law does provide some answers. An unjustified killing, for example, is unlawful. Death imposed as part of the death penalty or as the result of justified deadly force is lawful. A competent adult can choose (in real time or through advance directives) to refuse lifesaving medical care, and a surrogate can, in limited circumstances, make end-of-life choices on behalf of an incapacitated patient. This is a nonexhaustive list. Outside those limited situations, there are few hard and fast rules. Few questions that intertwine law, morality and ethics have fixed rules: death stands as no exception.

The Oklahoma Citizens Participation Act as a General Early Dismissal Procedure
In 2014, the Oklahoma Legislature passed the Oklahoma Citizens Participation Act (OCPA), which is codified in Okla. Stat. Tit. 12, §§1430-40. The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals has stated “[i]t is clear that the OCPA provides a new summary process/dismissal procedure in certain cases ...”1 Case law suggests that this new law may develop into a general early dismissal procedure applicable to many different types of Oklahoma civil cases.