Attorneys with gay and lesbian clients should take special care in drafting wills, business documents and performing other legal services for them, a pair of Oklahoma City attorneys told an audience Tuesday at the OU College of Law.

“I do get into quite a bit of estate litigation, trust and estate litigation, because it does often involve litigation when a [member of a] gay or lesbian couple die,” said Richard Ogden, a partner at the Oklahoma City law firm Mulinix, Ogden, Hall, Andrews & Ludlam. “I would say that if there’s anything I can impart upon you that if people come to you who are gay and lesbian, boy, make sure you cross all the ‘T’s and dot all the ‘I’s because if there is any opening then people will try go through that.”

Jim Roth, an attorney at Oklahoma City firm Phillips Murrah, also took part in the speech and question-and-answer period sponsored by United Students.

United Students is a group “dedicated to issues of equality and equal rights for all people regardless of gender or sexuality, particularly within the legal and political arenas,” United Students President Brooke Butner said by e-mail.

One of Roth’s first legal experiences was representing the surviving partner of a same-sex couple, who he said was fighting to retain the property the couple earned while they were together. The family of the dead partner opposed the claim.

“In Oklahoma, there’s still a lot of opportunity for really antiquated laws to pop up when you least expect it to make men and women, in some instances, feel less than a full citizen,” Roth said. “And our state statutes, in my opinion, and case law have a long way to go.”

Roth said during his second year of law school at Oklahoma City University, OCU required students to sign a “morality pledge” which prohibited homosexuality. Roth, who earned his law degree in 1994, said he was worried the school would kick him out for his homosexuality.

“Hopefully, people that are in your shoes today no longer feel that pressure that you actually might not be able to pursue your professional dreams because of who you are,” Roth said to the group of mostly law students.

Lawyers who are gay or lesbian do not generally need to worry their sexual preferences will be used against them when they are practicing their craft in Oklahoma courtrooms, Ogden said.

“I think the judges and attorneys have no problem with someone being gay or lesbian,” Ogden said. “I think you can get outside of Oklahoma and you may run into some issues. But I must say for the most part the judges and other attorneys in this state are highly respectful as a person first. Who you may be in your private life is who you may be in your private life.”

Roth became the first openly gay man to hold statewide office in Oklahoma when Gov. Brad Henry appointed him to an open seat on the Oklahoma Corporation Commission in 2007. Roth said a female former client who underwent a sex-change operation inspired him to be open with his sexuality with friends, family and employers. He said he represented the woman in her petition to legally change her name.

“This person has the courage to have gone through what she has gone through to live an authentic life,” he said. “There’s no excuse for the rest of us not to do that.”

He lost his 2008 bid for election to the same office to Republican Dana Murphy, 52 to 48 percent. He said he believed while bias against homosexuals might have played a small part in his loss, it was largely a part of strong general support for Republican candidates in Oklahoma that year.

Roth encouraged students to stand for political office. In an interview following the event, he said he had not ruled out running for office again at some point. However, he said his name “would not be on a ballot” in 2010.