The Oklahoma Bar Journal August 2023

of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, served as legal and policy advisor at the Corporation Commission and, most recently, was director of legal services for Liberty Utilities. Ann E. Keele has joined the Tulsa office of Hall Estill. She served as a special judge for the 14th Judicial District from 2019 to 2023. During her time as a judge, Ms. Keele presided over the victim protective order, misdemeanor and emer gency guardianship dockets in Tulsa and Pawnee counties. She was selected as the Oklahoma Family Judge of the Year by the OBA Family Law Section in 2022, as well as the Oklahoma Family Law Attorney of the Year in 2017. She practices in the areas of family law, mediation, divorce and legal separation, paternity and adoption. Kate N. Dodoo has been named the leader of the Appellate Group at McAfee & Taft. She is a trial and appellate lawyer at the firm’s Oklahoma City office, as well as the leader of the firm’s Immigration and Compliance Group. Previously, Ms. Dodoo served as an assistant chief counsel in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor, where she litigated complex immi gration removal proceedings and maintained an appellate practice before the Board of Immigration Appeals. Additionally, she served as the assistant city attorney to the city of Enid and an appellate attorney to Justice Tom Colbert of the Oklahoma Supreme Court for 12 years.

with honors from the OU College of Law in 2019. Prior to joining McAfee & Taft, he worked at an Oklahoma-based civil litiga tion firm, where he spent nearly four years defending insurance companies and their insureds in lawsuits arising from trucking and vehicular accidents. Mr. Howell received his J.D. from the OU College of Law in 2019. Previously, he worked as an associate at a boutique defense firm where he managed a large medical malprac tice litigation defense caseload, advised healthcare institutions on litigation avoidance strategies and represented healthcare profession als in licensure actions. Deborah R. Thompson and Kenneth A. Tillotson have joined to create the new Oklahoma City law firm of Thompson Tillotson. The firm provides legal services to regulated public utilities and businesses in the energy sector, including regulatory proceed ings, rulemakings, legislative matters and business develop ment. Ms. Thompson has more than 25 years of experience in public utility and energy matters before the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and nearly a decade of power plant development expe rience and representation of vari ous sectors of the power industry. Mr. Tillotson has represented clients in Oklahoma for more than 22 years and has practiced before state and federal courts in both Oklahoma and Arkansas, as well as the Oklahoma Supreme Court and the United States 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. He also repre sented the Public Utility Division

the National Health Law Moot Court team. He was involved in the American Indian Law Review and clerked for Justice Kauger and Justice Colbert at the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Ken Ray Underwood has relocated his practice to the Petroleum Club Building at 601 S. Boulder Ave. in Tulsa. Brian Blackstock and Clare G. Gibbons have joined the law firm of GableGotwals as of counsel attor neys. Previously, Mr. Blackstock gained experience in civil litigation, primarily focusing on defending corporate and individual clients in both state and federal courts. He represents insurers facing bad faith allegations and institutional misconduct and healthcare profes sionals and entities against medical malpractice, investigations and dis ciplinary proceedings. Ms. Gibbons practices in the area of corporate transactional matters, focusing on cybersecurity, federal contracting and commercial and operational contracts. She previously worked at Cherokee Federal and ONE Gas, where she managed federal contracts. Her experience includes drafting and negotiating agree ments and analyzing and advising internal stakeholders on emerging cybersecurity requirements. Braden M. Hoffmann and Peyton S. Howell have joined the Oklahoma City office of McAfee & Taft as trial lawyers. They focus on the resolution of complex business disputes, with an emphasis on tort litigation and insurance defense. Mr. Hoffmann received his J.D.

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THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL