THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 78 | MAY 2026 ON THE MOVE Bench & Bar Briefs Justine Ellis has joined the Oklahoma City office of Ogletree Deakins as an associate. She practices in the area of employment law, representing employers and management in all aspects of arbitration and litigation arising from employee-employee relationships, including wage and hour claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act and discrimination, harassment, retaliation and wrongful termination claims under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Ms. Ellis received her J.D. from the OU College of Law in 2023. While in law school, she served as the research editor of the American Indian Law Review, was an active member and officer of the Black Law Students Association, co-founded the First Generation Law Students Association and was a member of the Phi Delta Phi legal honor society. Madeline M. Nelson has joined the Oklahoma City office of Phillips Murrah PC. She is a litigator who represents clients in insurance defense and coverage, car dealership defense and general commercial litigation. She also maintains an active transactional practice that includes entity formation, estate planning, probate and the negotiation and drafting of commercial contracts and leases. Before joining the firm, Ms. Nelson spent several years practicing civil litigation, focusing on consumer law, insurance defense, products liability and premises liability. She received her J.D. from the OCU School of Law, where she was recognized as a Merit Scholar and a CALI Award recipient and was named to the dean’s list. She was an active member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Organization for the Advancement of Women in Law and the Animal Law Group. During law school, she had an externship with the Oklahoma Supreme Court and an internship at a mid-size civil litigation firm in Oklahoma City. HOW TO PLACE AN ANNOUNCEMENT: The Oklahoma Bar Journal welcomes short articles or news items about OBA members and upcoming meetings. If you are an OBA member and you’ve moved, become a partner, hired an associate, taken on a partner, received a promotion or an award or given a talk or speech with statewide or national stature, we’d like to hear from you. Sections, committees and county bar associations are encouraged to submit short stories about upcoming or recent activities. Honors bestowed by other publications (e.g., Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers, etc.) will not be accepted as announcements. (Oklahoma-based publications are the exception.) Information selected for publication is printed at no cost, subject to editing and printed as space permits. Submit news items to: Hailey Boyd Communications Dept. Oklahoma Bar Association 405-416-7033 barbriefs@okbar.org Articles for the August issue must be received by July 1.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTk3MQ==