The Seminole County Bar Association has announced that Chief Judge William J. Musseman and Judge Scott Rowland of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals will speak at its annual Law Day seminar this week in Wewoka.

Each year, the Seminole County Bar Association puts on a continuing education seminar and luncheon at the Seminole County Courthouse. This year, due to the relocation and renovation of the Courthouse, the seminar will be held at the Westside Community Center in Wewoka on Wednesday, April 30.

As part of the annual event, the Seminole County Bar Association also hosts a luncheon. This year, the President of the Oklahoma Bar Association, D. Kenyon Williams, Jr., will be the guest speaker at the annual Law Day Luncheon. Additionally, retired District Judge Timothy Olsen will do a presentation on the 100-Year Anniversary of the Seminole County Courthouse. Supreme Court Justices, Court of Appeals Judges, area Judges, and other state legal dignitaries will be attending, as well as members of the local Lions and Rotary clubs, Wewoka Chamber of Commerce, and members of the Seminole, Hughes and surrounding county Bar Associations.

The public is invited to attend. Tickets to the luncheon can be purchased from District Judge Brett W. Butner, 401 North Main, 2nd Floor Courtroom, Seminole. RSVP for same-day purchase may be made to Jessie Morgan at (405) 2573386. Tickets or RSVP must be received in advance as there are a limited number of tickets available and they may not be available at the door.

Seminole County and the City of Wewoka have a special connection to “Law Day,” a celebration observed nationwide around May of every year. The whole idea of “Law Day” originated in Wewoka by the late Hicks Epton, a well-known local and state lawyer. Epton and the Seminole County Bar Association founded a “Know Your Court – Know Your Liberties” program in Wewoka on May 1, 1946, to pay tribute to the American system of justice and counterbalance communist celebrations held annually on that day.

In 1948, Epton and other members of the Seminole County Bar Association presented a special “Oklahoma Lawyers’ Forum” in Wewoka that was so well received by an overflow crowd of 150 Rotary and Lions Club members, attorneys and other civic leaders, that similar programs were conducted before large crowds in Ada, Ardmore and Lawton.

Epton then promoted a celebration of Law Day at the University of Oklahoma in 1949, where it became an annual event and evolved into a state-wide celebration by the Oklahoma Bar Association. The collaboration gained national recognition in 1954 by the Freedom Foundation.

Since 1957, the American Bar Association has sponsored “Law Day” as a special day. That same year, congress and President Eisenhower, by presidential proclamation, set aside “Law Day” to celebrate our liberties each year. Since that time, members of the Seminole County Bar Association have been maintaining this tradition in Seminole County.