The Oklahoma Bar Journal May 2023

15,000-square-foot, $300,000 facil ity was proclaimed to be a symbol of the legal profession’s dedication to the public good. A FIRM FINANCIAL FOOTING Following the completion of the new building, the founda tion continued supporting legal education projects and made sizeable awards to the University of Oklahoma, University of Tulsa and Oklahoma City University law schools. It provided financial assistance to establish the OBA’s Continuing Legal Education program, provided updates of bench materials for Oklahoma judges and funded other projects through donations it received from lawyers across the state. The funding for legal education was strengthened in 1969 by two scholarships created by the OBF to honor renowned Oklahoma attor neys OBF founder Gerald A. Klein and Maurice Merrill, a beloved law professor who had a long and glori ous career at the OU College of Law. As OBF Trustees set up these scholarships, accepted more dona tions and considered the future, they recognized the need to make sure the funds they received were adequately preserved, stating humorously: services of volunteer money- managers, such as we who are trustees, will cost the foundation money because of our delay in investing, lack of knowledge of all available types of investment needed and lack of sophistication in what is a highly specialized business. Lawyers are notori ous for looking after everyone’s money but their own. The funds of the foundation are approaching the size when the

Photograph used for a story in the Oklahoma Times newspaper. “Proposed Headquarters, which the Oklahoma Bar Association possibly may build at N.E. 18th and Lincoln is shown in model form here by Gerald B. Klein, Tulsa, and J. T. Bailey, Cordell.” Courtesy Oklahoma Historical Society.

the property known as the “Harn Tract,” just southwest of the state Capitol. After much negotiation, the land was purchased for $21,000. The first fundraising commit tee meeting for the Headquarters Project was held Jan. 7, 1959, at the J & J Café in Bristow. A pilot campaign proved a success, and the committee received $450,000 in donations for the project. On Sept. 21, 1962, the gleaming new

With the foundation up and running, the OBA and OBF moved forward with their plans to establish a permanent home for Oklahoma lawyers, known as the “Headquarters Project.” A building fund was created to raise money to purchase property for the project. After considering several locations, bar leaders selected the northwest corner of Northeast 18th Street and Lincoln Boulevard, part of

Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal 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.

40 | MAY 2023

THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL