Page 102 - ACTL Journal Win24

In 2003, the Shawnee Oklahoma High School Football team, the Wolves, was having a great year and advanced to the quarter-finals of the Class 5A Oklahoma championship. The Wolves managed to
win the game, even though the referees ejected the Shawnee quar- terback from the game for fighting with an opposing team member. The Oklahoma Athletic Association then quickly determined that the
quarterback was suspended for the next game – the semi-final. The Shawnee School Board asked Terry to see if he could help persuade the Oklahoma Athletic Association to allow the quarterback to play in the semi, and Terry quickly went to the local District Court Judge, a Shawnee football fan, to secure a restraining order.
The Oklahoma Athletic Association sought an immediate appeal to the Oklahoma Supreme Court. A short hearing was held, at which Terry argued that the semi-final game was not the “next regular sched- uled game” under the Association rules and that the rules of the asso- ciation only regarded scheduled games. Terry (and the Wolves) were unsuccessful, but national media followed this short-lived litigation.
Former Regent John Tucker referred a potential class action case to Terry regarding a claim against Oklahoma BlueCross BlueShield, which was paying claims for one cochlear implant, but refusing to cover both ears. Terry argued that two cochlear implants were required for young people. He didn’t have to argue long. At the initial hearing, BlueCross BlueShield walked into the Court and announced they had changed their policy; they would commence paying for two cochlear implants forthwith, a huge victory for all of the hearing-impaired chil-
dren of Oklahoma.
LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE UNDERDOG
Looking back, Terry realized, even in law school, that he did not want to represent corporations. His heart was always with the underdog. He paraphrased Justice Cardozo saying “A drunk man is entitled to a safe sidewalk as much as a sober man, and is, in fact, more in need of a safe street.”
Retired Federal Judge Thomas Brett of the Northern District of Oklahoma decided to put together a group of Oklahoma lawyers to volunteer their time to help represent the Guantanamo detainees. Fellow Larry Ottoway of Oklahoma City and Terry were two of the four lawyers involved. Terry admits that not much was accomplished.
It was impossible to see their client. Terry re-
calls that the government was angry and just “forgot all the rules.” As they got deeper into the representation, their client was moved out of the country. Terry was simply frustrated that
he couldn’t do more.
Throughout his career Terry has been involved with service to the bar and to the courts. In an early trial, Terry recalls that the defense lawyers came in with a thick pile of jury instructions and Terry came in with his own smaller pile of instructions. The trial judge said he was go- ing to read both sets of instructions to the jury unless the lawyers came to an agreement about what instructions should be. The Judge then announced he was going to lunch at the local pool hall. The lawyers did come to an agree- ment. The experience made Terry recognize the need for standard civil jury instructions. Terry served on the original Standing Commit- tee of Civil Jury’s Instructions adopted by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
In the mid-60s, Oklahomans were embarrassed and humiliated by a bribery scandal involving certain justices of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. A better procedure was needed to nom- inate Justices and Judges. The Oklahoma Ju- dicial Nominating Commission was created in 1967; Terry chaired it in 1993-94. To fill a vacancy in the 1980s, Terry proposed that his friend, the Oklahoma Sooner’s football coach, Barry Switzer, be added to the Commission. No one on the committee thought Switzer would ever agree, but he did. He was a good member and never missed a meeting.
101
JOURNAL