For immediate release
Media contact: Evie Holzer, eholzer@ou.edu
OKLAHOMA CITY – University of Oklahoma College of Law alumni, faculty and students will gather at a luncheon 11:30 a.m. April 18 at Devon Tower to honor Chief Justice Tom Colbert and Judge David Lewis, two OU Law alumni who have made history through their judicial service on Oklahoma’s highest courts.
In January, Tom Colbert was sworn in as the first African-American chief justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, and David B. Lewis was sworn in as the first African-American presiding judge of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. Each was the first African-American to serve on their respective courts when they were appointed, Colbert in 2004 and Lewis in 2005. The two men attended the OU College of Law around the same time; Chief Justice Colbert graduated in 1982 and Judge Lewis graduated in 1983.
“We are honored to count Chief Justice Colbert and Judge Lewis among our alumni,” said OU Law Dean Joe Harroz. “Not only have they shaped history through their leadership, but also they exemplify the highest degree of public service.”
OU Law alumni are invited to attend this luncheon and are encouraged to respond by April 10 to Kasey Hendrix at kaseyhendrix@ou.edu or (405) 325-2011. Luncheon tickets are $30 each.
###
More News & Media
News
Legal Scholars to Speak at OU Law on Historical and Modern ‘Blackness as Nuisance’
Two legal scholars and authors will discuss historic and present-day permutations of a form of racial profiling in a Zoom webinar hosted by the University of Oklahoma College of Law, set for noon Wednesday, Oct. 21.
Blog
OU Law Conversations: Dean Emeritus Andrew Coats
What led you to OU Law? I have wanted to go to law school since I was a teenager. I was active in speech contests and enjoyed making oral presentations. When I was in high school, I would go downtown and watch some of the trials at the courthouse, so, I got acquainted with the courtroom rather early. I obtained a Navy scholarship to go to OU. I was a regular Navy midshipman then I served three years in the far east before coming back to law school. I wanted to attend law school and came back to OU.
Blog
OU Law Conversations: Robert Barnes
What led you to OU Law? OU Law has been part of my family since the 1920s. My great uncle was Dr. Maurice Merrill, a 1922 graduate of OU Law who then earned a Doctorate in Law from Harvard University in 1925. Merrill taught at OU Law for 30 years, published numerous seminal works in oil and gas law, constitutional law, administrative law and the law of Notice. While still in his twenties, Merrill published the seminal treatise Implied Covenants in Oil and Gas Law, which has been a cornerstone of my cases. In law school, I lived with Uncle Maurice and marveled at his longhand scrawl which was literally final copy in its first draft form. In my mind, he will always be ten times the lawyer that I ever became.