Attorneys
Richard L. McKnight
Of Counsel
McKnight@EnidLaw.com
Education:
University of Oklahoma College of Law
LL.B., 1963
University of Oklahoma
B.A., 1958
Experience:
Assistant County Attorney (1963-1965)
Admissions and Affiliations:
Oklahoma Bar Association, 1963
Phi Delta Phi Fraternity
Order of the Coif
Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission, 1991-1997
Oklahoma Judicial Nominating Commission Chair, 1997
Garfield County Bar Association
Garfield County Bar Association, President, 1976
American Bar Association
American Bar Foundation
The American College of Trust & Estate Counsel
Honors:
Oklahoma Bar Association, Fellow
Oklahoma Bar Association Trustee, 1985-present
Oklahoma Bar Association Vice President, 1987
Oklahoma Bar Association President-Elect, 1988
Oklahoma Bar Association President, 1989
Oklahoma Bar Association Board of Governors, 1977-79
Personal:
Richard (Dick) L. McKnight entered the University of Oklahoma College of Law in September of 1963 after having served two years in the U.S. Army as a Lieutenant in Army Intelligence. He was a member of the Oklahoma Law Review, Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity, The Order of the Coif, and graduated on May 26, 1963, with a Bachelor of Laws (with Honors).
Mr. McKnight then worked as an Assistant County Attorney of Garfield County, Oklahoma for two years half time and the other half time, he worked for his father and Harold Gasaway in the firm of McKnight and Gasaway of Enid. In 1965, he left the County Attorney’s Office and formed a partnership with his father and Harold Gasaway to be known as McKnight, Gasaway and McKnight. The firm had many other names through the years with numerous attorneys in Enid and at one time is believed to be the largest law firm of 15 attorneys in Oklahoma outside of Oklahoma City and Tulsa. In his early professional years he specialized in oil and gas law and then mainly in wills, probate, trust and real estate matters.
The Garfield County Bar Association has been especially important to Dick and he has served on a number of its committees and was the President in 1976. However, he was also President of the Enid Chamber of Commerce and the American Business Club in Enid, as well as a member of Rotary OBA Awards Committee. He has been on numerous boards of the First United Methodist Church of Enid and is now the lay delegate to the Annual Conference. He is also presently a member of the Oklahoma Board of Ordained Ministry of the United Methodist Church. He was a trustee of the Oklahoma United Methodist foundation for 16 years and Chancellor for three years.
He served as Campaign Chairman of Enid’s United Way in 1999, and is presently a Trustee of the Enid Community Foundation, as well as on the task force for the Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center. He has been quite active in the Oklahoma Bar Association serving on numerous committees such as first on the law school committee, and then subsequently on the probate, mineral, title standards, general practice, client security fund committees and many others. He was elected a Governor of the Oklahoma Bar Association in 1976 and served for three years. He was elected a Trustee of the Oklahoma Bar Foundation in 1983 and was the President of the Oklahoma Bar Foundation.
In 1982, Dick was elected a fellow of The American College of Probate Counsel, now known as American College of Trust and Estate Council, and was elected to and became of Life Member of the Fellows of the American Bar Association in 1997.
In 2001, when Dick turned 65, he and the other members of his firm decided to dissolve the McKnight and Gasaway law firm which had its beginning in 1917. Dick accepted an offer from Gungoll, Jackson, Collins, Box, and Devoll to become “Of Counsel” and he still practices part time today.