Vol. 4 No. 4 | Jan. 24, 2024
Courts
No published opinions this week.
No published opinions this week.
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
More
On Friday, Jan. 19, the new OBA officers and board members took their oaths of office. The swearing-in ceremony was held in the Oklahoma state Capitol Courtroom. Officers sworn in were:
- President Miles Pringle, Oklahoma City
- President-Elect D. Kenyon Williams Jr., Sperry
- Vice President Amber Peckio, Tulsa
Also taking oaths as members of the OBA Board of Governors were:
- Immediate Past President Brian T. Hermanson, Ponca City (one-year term)
- William Ladd Oldfield, Ponca City, District One (three-year term)
- Philip D. Hixon, Tulsa, District Six (three-year term)
- Chad A. Locke, Muskogee, District Seven (three-year term)
- Jeff D. Trevillion, Oklahoma City, Member at Large (three-year term)
- Laura R. Talbert, Oklahoma City, Young Lawyers Division Chairperson (one-year term)
OBA leadership roles are voluntary positions in which lawyers serve while continuing to practice law.
The Oklahoma Legislature reconvenes in February, and hundreds of bills will be prefiled – many of them potentially affecting your practice or the administration of justice. Join the OBA Legislative Monitoring Committee at 9 a.m. Friday, Feb. 2, at the Oklahoma Bar Center as they identify top bills of interest to the OBA and your practice area. Register now to attend either online or in person.
"Litigation and disputes of all types have been rising since 2020. According to Norton Rose and Fulbright’s 2023 Annual Litigation Trends Survey, a majority of corporate counsel surveyed in late 2022 expected all legal disputes to stay the same or increase, and nearly half of all respondents expected lawsuits to increase in 2023. At the same time, companies are implementing measures to reduce expenses, including overall legal spend, in response to economic, regulatory and operational pressures stemming from COVID-19 and other historic weather and political events. Of particular concern to in-house lawyers is the increasing attention on the amount spent on outside counsel, most especially outside counsel engaged to handle litigation. As a result, in-house lawyers are under more pressure to handle more matters internally. For in-house litigators, this creates a need to quickly and appropriately assess claims to determine whether to spend precious resources taking a case to trial or to settle the case so resources can be reserved for those cases the corporate client deems more appropriate. This can feel like a herculean task."
"On April 24, 2023, United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. transmitted amendments to Rules 106, 615 and 702 of the Federal Rules of Evidence to then-Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and Vice President Kamala Harris in her ex officio role as president of the Senate. After Congress failed to modify or reject the changes, the chief justice’s proposed revisions went into law Dec. 1, ending a rule-making process begun by the Advisory Committee on Evidence Rules in 2017.
Of those changes, the new amendments to Rule 702 have the potential to be most impactful for litigators, as Rule 702 governs the qualification and admissibility of expert testimony in federal court. Further, as we will see, state laws analogous to Rule 702, such as Oklahoma’s 12 O.S. §2702, may also be in line for revision prompted by the change to Rule 702."
"On behalf of the OBA Young Lawyers Division, let me be among the first to wish you a happy New Year! It is truly an honor and a privilege to serve as the YLD chair, and I could not be more excited for what the new year holds.
As the curtain falls on the bygone year, we find ourselves standing at the threshold of a new era, ushering in the promise of fresh beginnings and untapped potential. The transition to new leadership invites us to reflect on the accomplishments of the past year while embracing the opportunities that lie ahead. It is a moment to express gratitude for the foundations laid by our previous leaders and to set our sights on an even brighter future in 2024."
Enjoy easy communication with committees and sections with MyOKBar Communities. Communities is linked to your MyOKBar account, so your information is synced. Access it through the “MYOKBAR Communities (Sections and Committees)” link on your MyOKBar page.
We want to feature your work in the Oklahoma Bar Journal. "The Back Page" is a space for attorneys to share their creative work. Submit advice or articles related to the legal field, share something transforming or intriguing, or show off your photography skills. Email your submissions of roughly 500 words or high-resolution photos to OBA Communications Director Lori Rasmussen.
Featured CLE
By OBA MAP Director Jim Calloway
Microsoft has just announced that Copilot is now available to all 365 subscribers. The Verge broke the story and reminded us there are three versions of Copilot:
“Microsoft now has three different versions of Copilot. There’s the regular Copilot that’s available free of charge to both consumers and businesses, which is essentially a chatbot much like ChatGPT. Then, there’s the new Copilot Pro option that’s launching for consumers today for a $20 per month premium, offering AI-powered Copilot features inside Office apps and elsewhere. Microsoft now also offers the same premium subscription with more features to businesses in the form of Copilot for Microsoft 365 at $30 per user per month pricing.”
Using AI to search for answers based on your own documents and files will hopefully almost eliminate AI hallucinations. Document summaries should be produced quickly and easily. Creating PowerPoints from text will be a popular AI feature. For those of us who don’t have graphic design skills, creating graphics from text will be useful too, even if you mainly use this for marketing purposes or personal use.
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.