SCHOOL OF LAW - Spring 2023
Naturalization Ceremony
OCU Law had the opportunity to host a Naturalization Ceremony in October, with people from more than 10 different countries becoming United States citizens. With handheld American flags waving across the room, immigrants who completed the naturalization process stood and took the Oath of Allegiance and officially become citizens of the United States of America in front of their families and friends. OCU Law was honored to be a small part of such a big moment in these new citizens’ lives.
Brennan Lecture
OCU Law hosted its annual Brennan Lecture on October 20, 2022, with speaker professor Joseph Postell from Hillsdale College. The lecture, titled “State Legislatures and the Prospects for Self-Government,” addressed “the importance of state legislative capacity for ensuring that state legislatures are capable of fulfilling their role in self-government,” according to Postell. He is a leading scholar of American political theory and institutions and the author of “Bureaucracy in America: The Administrative State’s Challenge to Constitutional Government.”
Oklahoma Innocence Project Gala
The Oklahoma Innocence Project at OCU Law hosted its Wrongful Conviction Day Gala on September 30, 2022, at the Skirvin Hotel. The gala featured retired NFL linebacker, advocate and exoneree Brian Banks as its keynote speaker.
New Faculty: Tia Ebarb Matt
Tia Ebarb Matt joined OCU Law last summer as a clinical professor of law and the director of experiential learning. She received her bachelor’s in Criminal Justice in 1995 and attended the University of Washington School of Law, in which she received a Doctorate of Jurisprudence, in 1999. Since graduating with her J.D., she started her own legal practice in Arizona and Washington, focusing on estate and business planning with an emphasis on asset protection. Prior to her arrival at OCU, Ebarb Matt spent eight years at the University of Exeter Law School in England where she was an associate professor of law and the director of clinical legal education. She is admitted to practice before the United States 9th District Court and the United States Tax Court. She is also a solicitor in England and Wales and an enrolled member of the Choctaw-Apache Tribe of Ebarb.
Swearing-In Ceremony
Attorneys who passed the bar in July 2022 were sworn in by the Oklahoma Supreme Court in OCU’s Freede Wellness Center. Many OCU Law alumni were sworn in during the ceremony with President Ken Evans, Dean Jim Roth and Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Yvonne Kauger present.
