Vol. 4 No. 32 | Aug. 7, 2024
Courts
- 2024 OK 59: STATE ex rel. OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION v. FRYAR
- 2024 OK CR 21: COTTON v. STATE
No published opinions this week.
Dispositions Other than by Published Opinions
The Supreme Court of Oklahoma Court Calendar
The Supreme Court of Oklahoma is in session year round, unless otherwise noted. The court regularly schedules conferences on Mondays and other days as needed.
Member Transitions
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The award-winning Oklahoma Bar Association Wills for Heroes program serves those who serve their communities by offering no-cost legal assistance in the areas of wills and estate planning to first responders and emergency personnel. Oklahoma lawyers will provide this service at the Southwestern Oklahoma State University Timothy T. Day Business Enterprise Center in Weatherford on Saturday, Aug. 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Attorneys will help prepare wills for first responders and their spouses. This includes all emergency and volunteer police officers, firefighters, paramedics, corrections and probation officers and veterans. The wills will help first responders make determinations about what will happen to their assets and family in the event of their deaths. The program is offered as a volunteer service of the OBA Young Lawyers Division.
The Oklahoma Bar Association Women in Law Section is planning its annual conference to celebrate and support women in the legal profession. This one-day event will kick off at 8:45 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 20, at the Mayo Hotel, 115 W. 5th St., Tulsa.
Attendees may register for the full conference or for the luncheon only. Discounts are available for Women in Law Section members (Code: WILMEMBER2024) and government and nonprofit attorneys (Code: GOVNP2024).
The event will also feature the Mona Salyer Lambird Spotlight Awards Luncheon, where leading women lawyers and judges from across the state are annually recognized. This is the 28th year of award presentations.
This year's exciting event will be made possible by its sponsors, which can be viewed here. Thank you to the gold, silver and bronze sponsors for their outstanding and generous support.
"Opening Your Law Practice" is a free semi-annual seminar for new lawyers, those returning to private practice or those venturing out on their own. The program will address resources for starting a law practice, building client service and satisfaction systems, client development and marketing, client file management, professional liability insurance, professionalism, trust accounting and legal ethics, law office software and equipment and accounting and tax for law firms. Email Nickie Day or call 405-416-7050 to register for this seminar.
"Oklahoma City attorney James Franklin Davis, a founding member of the law firm of Andrews Davis, passed away last September at the age of 90. He spent more than 50 years of his legal career at that firm. His daughter, Nancy Lynn Roberts, followed in his footsteps into the practice of law, creating a family legacy of Oklahoma attorneys.
Earlier this year, Ms. Roberts made a generous memorial donation to the OBF in honor of her father. Along with the donation for legal services was a message fondly remembering her father."
PracticePanther is an easy-to-use law practice management software that enables firms to save eight-plus hours a week by streamlining client intake, simplifying billing and payment processing, automating workflows and so much more. OBA members get 10% off the first year of PracticePanther’s annual business plan. Redeem your discount by clicking the “Practice Management Software Benefits” link on your MyOKBar page.
Featured CLE
By OBA MAP Director Jim Calloway
Some lawyers are using artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their practices today. Almost every lawyer has heard the stories of lawyers being sanctioned or disciplined when the AI tool they used to prepare a brief included fictitious citations and quotes from nonexistent opinions. I must note that the most serious consequences were meted out to lawyers who also misrepresented themselves to the court about how the brief was created. To state the obvious, they filed pleadings without personally reviewing the cases cited and quoted.
I encourage readers to read these two recently released legal ethics opinions focusing on generative AI. Even if you don’t use generative AI, other lawyers will, and you want to be prepared if a future client brings you evidentiary materials that make you question if AI was involved in their creation.
ABA Formal Opinion 512 Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools (July 29, 2024) begins by noting lawyers have been using some tools for years that could be termed AI (e.g., digital contract analysis or technology-assisted review) as a part of electronic discovery.
The Pennsylvania Bar Association Committee on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility released Formal Opinion 2024-200 jointly with the Philadelphia Bar Association (June 24, 2024). This committee enjoys a great reputation for publishing excellent ethics opinions concerning lawyers’ use of technology. This opinion concludes with a dozen observations about the ethical use of AI.
Of course, both the ABA opinion and the Pennsylvania opinion are advisory only and not binding on practicing lawyers. But they are both well-reasoned and well-written, with many citations of authority.
The Oklahoma Bar Journal is a publication of the Oklahoma Bar Association. All rights reserved. Copyright© 2024 Oklahoma Bar Association. Statements or opinions expressed herein 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. Although advertising copy is reviewed, no endorsement of any product or service offered by any advertisement is intended or implied by publication. Advertisers are solely responsible for the content of their ads, and the OBA reserves the right to edit or reject any advertising copy for any reason. Legal articles carried in The Oklahoma Bar Journal are selected by the Board of Editors. Information about submissions can be found at www.okbar.org.