The State of Our Association

By D. Kenyon Williams Jr. 

As one of my last official acts as OBA president, during our 2025 Annual Meeting, I was honored to report during the General Assembly that our association is healthy and well-positioned to carry on our joint purposes. I now share that report with all OBA members as my final president’s message.

Many changes have come about since the pandemic forced the association to develop technology and planning for virtual meetings. We have adapted well to committee and section meetings in a mix of in-person and virtual attendance, which has led to greater participation that was challenging in the past due to the travel required.

Similarly, many of us have taken advantage of virtual continuing legal education, which reduced the need for CLE to be a major part of our Annual Meeting in 2025. Based on attendance, the meeting was a great success! Following the experiment with a mid-year Annual Meeting in 2024, I hope those who attended enjoyed the return to our longstanding history of an autumn Annual Meeting. For those of you who could not attend this year, I hope to see you at our next Annual Meeting in the fall of 2026.

Our 2025 Solo & Small Firm Conference at OKANA was one of the most popular and well-attended events in the OBA’s history! OKANA produced such a great gathering and family-friendly environment that the association is targeting a return in 2026. If all goes as planned, the 2026 event will be styled as our “Mid-Year Conference” and will be even more inclusive of members and their families. I hope you will make plans to attend next year.

I want to extend a special thanks to our OBA staff. The amount of time and effort required to plan and coordinate the Annual Meeting and the Solo & Small Firm Conference is incredible and daunting. In my experience, under the leadership of Executive Director Janet Johnson, our staff has done an amazing job this year!

My goal this year has been to focus on matters in which our members and our association should be united: defense of the rule of law, defense of an independent judiciary, access to justice, professionalism and civility. I have been humbled and encouraged by the response of our members and our judiciary. I am also thankful to the Oklahoma Supreme Court for its support of this year’s focus on professionalism and civility.

Our celebration of Law Day 2025, both at the statewide and local county bar levels, was very successful. The theme, “The Constitution’s Promise: Out of Many, One,” provided a great opportunity to celebrate and publicize the unifying force of our shared Constitution. Our Ask A Lawyer service campaign had the most calls and emailed questions in the history of this public outreach program.

On the topic of access to justice, I have tried this year to highlight the continuing and accelerating loss of rural attorneys who represent the population of our rural counties (legal deserts). As most of you have heard me mention before, at least 14 of our counties have six or fewer practicing attorneys. In my travels to meet with local county bar associations this year, I have heard many stories of elder attorneys who want to retire but cannot find a replacement. I have also heard stories from rural attorneys, like OBA Governor Ben Barker of Enid and newly elected Governor Chris Jones of Durant. Mr. Barker and Mr. Jones point to the many advantages of a rural practice, including work-life balance, varied legal practice and greater control of caseload, congenial relationships with the bench and bar, willing mentors, lower cost of overhead, shorter commute, community appreciation and support, and a great place to raise a family!

Regarding possible solutions to our legal deserts, I recommend The Rural Lawyer, a book by Professor Hannah Haksgaard of the University of South Dakota School of Law, who researched and analyzed the efforts of South Dakota, Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas and Minnesota to solve the “legal desert” problem we face here in Oklahoma. The book explains that South Dakota has had some success in a legislatively created incentive program. Under that program, participating attorneys commit to a rural practice for five years in return for a stipend. The stipend is funded by the state, the county of rural practice and the state bar association. If the participating attorney quits the program before completing the five-year service agreement, they must repay the stipend. I am not advocating for such a program, but my personal plan is to continue seeking and promoting solutions.

A related issue is the demographics of our association. Of our 19,000 members, about 4,800 are out of state. Of our approximately 14,000 in-state members, we have more members over the age of 80 than under the age of 30 (let that sink in for a minute). I had the honor of welcoming hundreds of new admittees to our association this year. However, thus far in 2025, we have lost 164 of our members as the baby boomer generation continues to age. I urge each of you to reach out to young people to encourage them to enter our most honorable profession.

Another good work of which we can be proud is the Lawyers Helping Lawyers Assistance Program Committee. In a recent three-month period, 25 members reached out for assistance through the hotline. Currently, 88 members are using the free counseling sessions provided through our assistance program. All members have access to up to six hours of free, short-term, problem-focused or crisis counseling. The service is strictly confidential – information regarding the participants is not made available to the OBA. Again, I urge each of you to be sensitive to members who may need help and encourage them to reach out through the hotline. Calls are answered by an independent counseling/mental health service.

I am also pleased to report that the OBA is financially sound and has a conservative and well-reasoned budget that will soon be presented to the Oklahoma Supreme Court for review and approval. Our association, through its staff and member-led committees and sections, continues to provide high-level services and support to our members. Plans for long-needed repairs and improvements to the Oklahoma Bar Center are ready to be implemented. I am confident that you will all be excited and pleased to see the improvements that will be made to the bar center in the coming year!

In closing out my year, I want to first thank my lovely wife, Teresa Williams, for her unfailing and patient support. Even after 51 years of marriage, I am daily reminded how blessed I am to have a life partner like Teresa.

I also want to thank Vice President Rick White, Past President Miles Pringle, our Supreme Court liaison Chief Justice Dustin P. Rowe and all the members of the Board of Governors for their help and support this year! In particular, I have greatly appreciated the welcoming attitude of all the Supreme Court justices throughout this year. My law firm, Hall Estill Hardwick Gable Golden & Nelson, has been fully supportive of my presidency, and my colleagues have been a source of daily encouragement for me this year. Thanks also to our OBA staff. They are highly dedicated, creative and effective – we are fortunate to have the caliber of staff that work hard to take care of all our members.

Please join me in welcoming incoming OBA President Amber Peckio and President-Elect Jana Knott. I am confident that Ms. Peckio will bring to her presidency a desire to serve all our members and the public, and she will work with energy and creativity for the good of our association. I look forward to serving on the Board of Governors as immediate past president in 2026.

It has been such an honor for me to serve as your president this year. I am very optimistic about the future of our association and our profession. The success of our association depends upon all of you! Please commit to being more involved in our association and your respective communities in 2026. I wish for each of you the very best in life!

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Originally published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal – OBJ 96 Vol 10 (December 2025).

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.