THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 4 | AUGUST 2025 successful Legislative Kickoff and Day at the Capitol. Leadership Academy is gearing up for its next class, which will begin in January, and applications will open in September. Smokeball Bill, a free trust accounting and billing software for our members, was launched. The OBA Law Day Committee conducted another successful Law Day and Ask A Lawyer event. Statewide celebrations of our members achieving milestone anniversaries were held. The Solo & Small Firm Conference was reinvented and held in conjunction with the Oklahoma Judicial Conference. The design has been approved and architects have been retained to finalize the plans for long-needed changes to the Oklahoma Bar Center for ease of use, including handicap accessible modifications. With all that behind us, there is so much to anticipate for the rest of the association’s year! If you ever find yourself saying, “Someone should do something about _,” here is your chance. Our 2025 Annual Meeting will be held Nov. 6-7 at the Sheraton Oklahoma City Downtown Hotel. Sept. 8 is the deadline for nominations to be submitted for Board of Governors vacancies. Please submit your nominations, and get involved in “doing something about _.” It cannot be said too often how proud I am of our members for all that they do. Each one of you, with your own time demands, both professional and personal, still finds time to “SOMETIMES YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THE middle of nowhere, and sometimes in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself” is one of those unattributed quotes I seem to remember kicking around since the 1970s. Somehow, it seems so very applicable to August. When January arrives, we often feel so drained that it is hard to think about “doing it all over again.” But we stiffen our resolve and “soldier on” despite the feeling that we need a vacation to recover from November and December. However, the first few months of the year go by in a flash and seem to require an extraordinary amount of time and energy to meet our professional and personal activities. Spring break comes and goes, then Tax Day, and maybe some vacation time is in there somewhere. Then, as hard as it is to believe, August arrives, and it is the “middle” of the OBA’s year. The first half of our association’s year is over, and we look around and think, “What have we accomplished?” With no hope of comprehensively listing all of the activities and projects that have occurred since Jan. 1, here are some I observed firsthand: The OBA Membership Engagement Committee has been reaching out to our state’s law schools. The Lawyers Helping Lawyers Assistance Program continues to support our members. The Board of Governors is implementing the strategic plan drafted under Past President Miles Pringle’s leadership. The Board of Governors continues to hold some of the monthly meetings and joint receptions in various counties around the state to be inclusive of more members. The OBA Legislative Monitoring Committee conducted another ‘Sometimes You Find Yourself in the Middle of Nowhere, and ...’ From the President By D. Kenyon “Ken” Williams Jr. D. Kenyon “Ken” Williams Jr. is a shareholder and director at Hall Estill in Tulsa. 918-594-0519 kwilliams@hallestill.com (continued on page 69)
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