The Oklahoma Bar Foundation has honored two groups with the prestigious new OBF Community Fellow award. Honored during the Oklahoma Bar Association Annual Meeting were the Oklahoma Bar Association Family Law Section and The Garrett Law Center of Tulsa. The OBF Community Fellows Program is a new benevolent charitable program uniting individual lawyers with county bar associations, law firms, sections of the OBA, banks, corporations and other organizations to support a common cause – the promotion of justice, provision of law-related services, and advancement of public awareness and better understanding of the law. OBF Community Fellows help to serve the neediest of Oklahomans and give non-individual donors the ability to participate collectively as a group and receive recognition as an annual OBF Community Fellow. Please see www.okbarfoundation.org or contact the OBF at foundation@okbar.org or (405) 416-7070 to find out how your company or group can become a member of the esteemed OBF Community Fellows Program.

The Oklahoma Bar Foundation was founded in 1946 and has given more than eleven million dollars to Oklahoma law-related nonprofits for exclusively public purposes, in just the last thirty-five years alone. OBF is the primary grant-making organization in Oklahoma supporting law-related services and education. The OBF provides a funding umbrella for many diverse law-related programs and projects with ongoing oversight of projects it funds. OBF provides funding for the provision of free legal assistance for the poor and elderly, safe haven for the abused, protection and legal assistance for children, public law-related education programs, including programs for school children, and other activities that improve the quality of justice for all Oklahomans through legal resources. It is estimated that OBF grants impact the lives of more than 90,000 Oklahomans each year, meaning that over the course of OBF’s history, the lives of millions of Oklahomans have been touched and improved. Lawyers and OBF Community Fellows, acting in partnership through the OBF, make a difference.

The Garrett Law Center is headquartered in Tulsa and provides a variety of services to Oklahomans and other consumers across the country handling state and federal cases involving injury or death. The Garrett Law Center is the first law firm to join the OBF Community Fellows Program and challenges other law firms, affiliate groups and organizations to support the ongoing work of the OBF by joining today. The Garret Law Center is an honored member of the new OBF Community Fellows Program at the highest recognition level of Patron.

The Family Law Section is the OBA’s largest section devoted to a practice area with more than 1,100 attorneys, judges and law student members from all across Oklahoma. The section provides members invaluable continuing legal education each month and in addition to professional education, the section helps to support various OBA projects providing both charitable and professional enhancement opportunities. The Family Law Section is an honored member of the new OBF Community Fellows Program at the highest recognition level of Patron.

Susan B. Shields of Oklahoma City is President of the Oklahoma Bar Foundation, Dietmar K. Caudle of Lawton serves as President-Elect and will take the helm in January, 2014, Jack L. Brown of Tulsa is Vice President, Secretary/Treasurer is Judge Millie Otey if Tulsa, Immediate Past President is Judge Shon T. Erwin of Lawton and the Board of Trustee members are A. Gabriel Bass, Tanya S. Bryant, Jennifer M. Castillo, Dean Valerie Couch, Jack S. Dawson, Kevin R. Donelson, Brandon P. Long, Kara I. Smith, Jeffery D. Trevillion, John Morris Williams of Oklahoma City; Renée DeMoss, Briana J. Ross, Alan Souter of Tulsa; Stephen D. Beam of Weatherford; Brett D. Cable of McAlester; Guy P. Clark of Ponca City; Michael C. Mordy of Ardmore; Dennis A. Smith of Clinton; Donna L. Smith of Vinita; James T. Stuart of Shawnee; Roy D. Tucker of Muskogee.

Oklahoma Bar Foundation honors The Garret Law Center with presentation of the 2013 OBF Community Fellows Plaque, left to right is OBF Trustee Kara I. Smith, honoree’ Amber Peckio Garrett of The Garrett Law Center in Tulsa, OBF President Susan B. Shields and Past President Shon T. Erwin.

Oklahoma Bar Foundation honors the Oklahoma Bar Association Family Law Section with presentation of the 2013 OBF Community Fellows Plaque, left to right is FLS representatives Shane Henry, Monica Dionisio, Amy Page, Tamera Childers, William G. LaSorsa, OBF Executive Director Nancy Norsworthy, Kimberly Hays, OBF President Susan B. Shields, OBF Trustee Alan Souter, Luke Barteaux, OBF Past President Shon T. Erwin, and OBF Trustee Kara I. Smith.