Magistrate Paul J. Cleary Paul J. Cleary has served as U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma since 2002. Judge Cleary is a graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts and the University of Tulsa College of Law. He served as a law clerk for U. S. District Judge Thomas R. Brett, and, in a previous life, was a reporter and editorial writer for the Tulsa World.
Judge Daman Cantrell
Judge Daman Cantrell, the son of a welder and a homemaker, was the first college graduate in his family. He is a lifetime Oklahoman, graduating from Mustang High School in 1978 as a State Debate Champion his senior year. Judge Cantrell was granted a full scholarship for the debate team from the University of Central Oklahoma, recruited by the iconic UCO Coach Douglas Duke. He graduated in 1982, with a Bachelor’s degree in Business, and from the University Of Oklahoma College Of Law in 1985. Judge Cantrell began practice as an Assistant Oklahoma Attorney General, under Oklahoma Attorney General Michael C. Turpen and Robert H. Henry. He then served as a federal law clerk in the United States District Court of the Western District of Oklahoma, for the Honorable Doyle W. Argo, Federal Magistrate Judge, and as an Assistant Public Defender in both Oklahoma and Tulsa counties, during which time he was lead counsel in over 60 felony jury trials. In 1999, Judge Cantrell was appointed by the District Judges of Tulsa County as a Special District Judge, and served in this capacity on numerous dockets until his election as District Judge in 2006. He has presided over 100 major civil jury trials and hundreds of nonjury matters in this time.
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Judge Cantrell received the prestigious Alma Wilson Award in 2006 from the Oklahoma Bar Association for his work on his docket saving the Family Drug Court from elimination, allowing it to flourish and become a model court in the nation for families with children removed from the home because of substance abuse from the parents. The judge also received the President’s Award from the Tulsa County Bar Association in both 2007 and 2009 for his work with the Tulsa County’s Lakeside Group Home, for troubled youths. (see below). In 2016 he received the James C. Lang mentoring award for his work with law students all over the state in establishing “virtual internships,” as well as his 33 year involvement with the Oklahoma Mock Trial program, his lifelong volunteer passion in the law.
