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Oklahoma's Oldest Law Firm
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Also known as the Cherokee Strip Land Run, the Land Run of 1893 marked the opening to settlement of the Cherokee Outlet in what would become a part of the state of Oklahoma.
The Cherokee Strip Land Run began at noon on September 16, 1893, with more than 100,000 participants hoping to claim land. |
We don’t know exactly when Mr. Parker opened his law practice in Oklahoma but until someone who was there tells us otherwise, we think that shortly after September 16, 1893, the original predecessor of Mitchell DeClerck first opened its doors.
Or more likely its tent flap much like the one pictured on the left. |

Parker was later joined by the former Attorney General of Oklahoma Territory Percy C. Simons forming Parker & Simmons in 1906. Simons had also made the run into Oklahoma in 1893 but began his practice in Grant County on the Kansas-Oklahoma border. Simons became the Attorney General of Oklahoma Territory in 1904 serving until 1906 when he came to Enid to join Parker. Mitchell DeClerck's History Page sets out how we know all of this to be true.
Parker & Simons grew in stature and was the only Enid firm listed in the prestigious Hubbell's Law Directory in 1918, the year of Parker's death. Mitchell DeClerck or its predecessors have been continuously listed in Hubbell's or its sucessor Martindale-Hubbell for 97 years.
For number of decades Mitchell DeClerck and many of its members have held the highest possible "AV" peer review rating awarded by the Martindale-Hubbell Legal Directory – the successor to Hubbell's Law Directory.
Today Martindale-Hubbell recognizes Mitchell DeClerck as one of the 2015 U.S. Top Ranked Law Firms™ for having at least one of every three attorneys with its very highest AV Preeminent Rating – a ranking achieved by only 5% of US law firms.
Mitchell DeClerck is the oldest law firm in Enid, Oklahoma by nearly a century and the oldest law firm in the state of Oklahoma by nearly a decade. So, over parts of three centuries we've long done most everything involving Oklahoma law; however, this website is devoted primarily to our Bankruptcy Practice involving Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 for more than 40 years. Likely much longer but we just can't nail down how much longer.
But if you need something else, please click here to visit Mitchell DeClerck's primary website for things that don't involve bankruptcy.
Our point: If you need an Oklahoma Lawyer to help you solve a problem, in our 122 plus years representing Oklahomans beginning with Charles Parker in 1893 you can be assured that:
We've been there and done that.
Parker & Simons grew in stature and was the only Enid firm listed in the prestigious Hubbell's Law Directory in 1918, the year of Parker's death. Mitchell DeClerck or its predecessors have been continuously listed in Hubbell's or its sucessor Martindale-Hubbell for 97 years.
For number of decades Mitchell DeClerck and many of its members have held the highest possible "AV" peer review rating awarded by the Martindale-Hubbell Legal Directory – the successor to Hubbell's Law Directory.
Today Martindale-Hubbell recognizes Mitchell DeClerck as one of the 2015 U.S. Top Ranked Law Firms™ for having at least one of every three attorneys with its very highest AV Preeminent Rating – a ranking achieved by only 5% of US law firms.
Mitchell DeClerck is the oldest law firm in Enid, Oklahoma by nearly a century and the oldest law firm in the state of Oklahoma by nearly a decade. So, over parts of three centuries we've long done most everything involving Oklahoma law; however, this website is devoted primarily to our Bankruptcy Practice involving Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 for more than 40 years. Likely much longer but we just can't nail down how much longer.
But if you need something else, please click here to visit Mitchell DeClerck's primary website for things that don't involve bankruptcy.
Our point: If you need an Oklahoma Lawyer to help you solve a problem, in our 122 plus years representing Oklahomans beginning with Charles Parker in 1893 you can be assured that:
We've been there and done that.