Karen “Sunny” Langdon will receive an award for Community Service and be inducted into The University of Tulsa College of Law Hall of Fame on May 12, 2012. Langdon is the Pro Bono Coordinator for Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma’s Tulsa Law Office. She recruits volunteer lawyers to donate their time to assist Legal Aid clients.
Recently Karen developed partnerships with local corporate counsel and law firms to provide services to low-income and senior clients. Involving corporate in-house counsel of The Williams Companies, and lawyers from the law firm of Hall, Estill, Hardwick, Gable, Golden & Nelson with Legal Aid has proven to be a valuable partnership for all. This joint effort has gotten national recognition, receiving the prestigious Pro Bono Institute’s “Pro Bono Partner Award” in 2008. Legal Aid trained corporate legal staff from the Williams Companies and lawyers from Hall Estill to assist elderly clients with end-of-life planning issues and to serve as guardians ad litem in Tulsa County.

She also recruited law firm Gable Gotwals to support the work of Legal Aid’s Medical/Legal Partnership at the University Of Oklahoma College Of Medicine’s Pediatric Clinic, serving families with a variety of legal needs.

Langdon earned her sociology degree from the University of Tulsa and her master’s from Arizona State University. For over 30 years, Karen has worked as a part-time instructor for Tulsa Community College. She assumed her position with Legal Aid at the Tulsa Law Office in 2005. Langdon’s vision at Legal Aid is to train corporate volunteer attorneys to help low-income Oklahomans with civil legal problems involving basic needs, such as a safe place to live, the ability to work and freedom from domestic violence.

Langdon is a member of the Tulsa County Bar Association, and has served on the TCBA Board of Directors in many roles, including Community Outreach, Law Day, Bench & Bar Committee, as a Law Library Trustee and as a Board Member-At-Large. As a member of the Oklahoma Bar Association, she has served on the Bench and Bar Committee and the Awards Committee. She also served on the Child Abuse Network Board of Directors and acted as administrator for the American Inns of Court.

She is active in Leadership Tulsa, Leadership Oklahoma, The Oklahoma Academy and Youth Services of Tulsa. She also served on the City of Tulsa Sales Tax Overview Committee and the Oklahoma Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Langdon was named one of “Fifty Making a Difference – Women of the Year” by the Oklahoma Journal Record in 2003, 2008, and 2009. She is a Tulsa County Bar Association “Golden Rule” Award Recipient, and was a Leadership Tulsa Paragon Award Nominee in 2000, 2001, and 2007. She received the Oklahoma Bar Association Maurice Merrill Award in 1996.

Karen Langdon is married, the mother of 3 daughters, and has 5 grandchildren. She is an avid tennis player and runner.