Hermanson Elected to OBA Board of Governors

District attorney for Kay and Noble counties, Brian Hermanson will serve on the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Board of Governors starting in January 2018. He will be a part of the OBA’s 17-member Board of Governors, which meets monthly and governs the association.

Hermanson received his B.A. from Carroll College in Wisconsin and his J.D. from the OU College of Law. He is a member of the Kay and Noble county bar associations, having served as president of the Kay County Bar Association in 1989 and the Noble County Bar Association in 2016 to the present.

Hermanson was vice president of the OBA in 1988, Oklahoma Bar Foundation president in 1993 and chair of the OBA Young Lawyers Division in 1982. He has served as chair of the OBA General Practice, Law Practice Management and Technology and Criminal Law sections and served three terms as chair of the Litigation Section. He has also served as Oklahoma Chapter of the America Board of Trial Advocates and Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyers Association president, served on the OBA Board of Editors and as the Oklahoma District Attorneys Association secretary/treasurer.

Hermanson was awarded the David Moss Memorial Award for Outstanding District Attorney in 2016, Clarence Darrow Award in 1986, Earl Sneed Award in 1998, University of Oklahoma Regents Award in 1994 and was named Sole Practitioner of the Year by the Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division of the American Bar Association.

Hermanson has served on the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals Committee for Uniform Criminal Jury Instruction since 1994, as the ABA Standing Committee on Gavel Awards chair for three years, president of the Ponca City Rotary Club, Ponca City YMCA, Ponca Playhouse, is an ex officio member of the Ponca City Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and is an elder and past chairman of the board of Community Christian Church.

Kimberly K. Hays of Tulsa will fill the role of president, Charles W. Chesnut of Miami will serve as president-elect and Richard Stevens of Norman will serve as vice president. Bartlesville lawyer Linda S. Thomas, who serves as the 2017 OBA president, will remain on the OBA Board of Governors for one year as immediate past president.

Also elected to the OBA Board of Governors to represent their respective Supreme Court judicial districts are D. Kenyon Williams Jr. of Tulsa and Matthew C. Beese of Muskogee. They will serve three-year terms. Brian K. Morton of Oklahoma City will also serve a three-year term as a member at large. Nathan D. Richter of Mustang will serve a one-year term as OBA Young Lawyers Division chairperson.

New officers and Board of Governors members will take office Jan. 1, 2018. OBA leadership roles are voluntary positions in which lawyers serve while continuing to practice law.