Meet the Firm

The Firm began in November, 1973, as Reece B. Morrel & Associates, Inc., as essentially a tax oriented firm. Mr. Morrel works primarily with tax planning and controversies, real estate transactions, corporate formation, reorganization, sales, estate planning and probate.

Ronald J. Saffa joined the Firm’s tax law staff in 1984, following 8 years of service with the Internal Revenue Service as an Internal Revenue Agent. Mr. Saffa and Mr. Morrel, who also served as an Internal Revenue Agent, have handled many complex controversies and difficult planning issues during their tenure with the Firm. They frequently work together on complex tax and business issues and have enjoyed success reducing, and in many cases, eliminating disputed tax assessments involving tens of millions of dollars. Mr. Saffa works principally in tax and business transactions, probate and estate planning.

James R. Hicks joined the Firm in May, 1987 in response to the growing demand for Courtroom experience from among the Firm’s clients. The increasing needs for dispute resolution, litigation strategy and trial management were needed by the Firm’s increasing corporate and business clients. Mr. Hicks has represented clients in a broad range of disputes and full trials in both State and Federal Courts. His excellent drafting and negotiation skills have benefited various clients ranging from securities class action matters to settlement of multimillion dollar disputes. In addition, he has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Oklahoma Bar Association and in numerous capacities with the Tulsa County, Oklahoma and American Bar Associations. Mr. Hicks works principally in the areas of commercial and business litigation and increasingly, in the areas of workers' compensation and business acquisitions.

Mark A. Craige joined the firm in 1992. He received a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and Accounting degrees with honors in 1978 from Southeastern Oklahoma State University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Tulsa in 1981. Mr. Craige's practice is devoted to insolvency, reorganization and related areas with primary emphasis on creditors, committees, trustees and Chapter 11 Bankruptcy reorganizations, business Chapter 7 cases and bankruptcy litigation. He has been counsel of record in some 30 reported cases on bankruptcy law issues. Mark was inducted as a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy in 2000. He has been board certified by the American Board of Certification in Business Bankruptcy Law since 1992. Mark was a member of the board of directors of American Board of Certification from 1994 to 2002. During his tenure on the Board, he served in numerous roles as Vice-president, President and Chairman in 2001, as well as chair of the marketing committee and a member of the standards and faculty committees. He has also been an active member of the American Bankruptcy Institute for over 15 years where he worked on several committees and chaired the membership committee from 1998 thru 2000. He was the awarded ABI’s Meritorious Service Award in 1995 for the development, organization and implementation of the nationwide Regional Membership Network Program. Mr. Craige is a frequent lecturer at more than 50 continuing education seminars on bankruptcy and insolvency topics since 1990 in Oklahoma, as well as other state and national seminars. He received the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Earl Sneed award as the outstanding contributor to continuing legal education in the State of Oklahoma in 1998.

Reece Morrel, Jr. joined the firm in 1992. Mr. Morrel works primarily with tax planning and controversies, real estate transactions, workers' compensation, corporate formation, estate planning and probate.

Paul R. Hodgson has served "of counsel" to the Firm for approximately 25 years. He was met by Mr. Morrel in 1962 when he audited one of Mr. Hodgson's accounting clients while working for the Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Saffa met Mr. Hodgson in 1977 while auditing one of his attorney clients. Out of these two adversarial events, a close relationship was formed by each of the members of the Firm, and they have worked closely with him in many tax controversies and tax planning matters.

Mr. Hodgson practiced as a CPA from 1950 to 1963 and as a lawyer since 1963. He has been a highly regarded tax advisor to many clients, and consults with many accounting firms, attorneys, and other professionals regarding complex tax issues. He authored 3 tax articles for Prentice-Hall Tax Services. He was appointed a member of the Governor's Advisory Committee on Taxation in 1967, charged with the responsibility of re-writing the Oklahoma income tax code to conform to the Federal income tax code. As such member, he drafted a substantial part of the code. He has also sponsored legislation from time to time involving changes to the Federal estate tax code and the Oklahoma Trust Code. He has represented clients in Federal criminal tax fraud investigations, in civil payroll and sales tax trust fund penalty matters, tax-free exchanges, and has done substantial research in Federal and Oklahoma taxation of the members of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians. He specializes in estate and gift planning, including: asset protection, maximizing use of exemptions and non-taxable gifts, life insurance trusts, qualified personal residence trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts, grantor retained uni-trusts, intentionally defective grantor irrevocable trusts, charitable remainder annuity trusts, charitable remainder uni-trusts, net income make-up charitable remainder uni-trusts, qualified disclaimers, revocable trusts (in part to avoid probate), wills, advance directives for health care, durable powers of attorney and closely held entities.

Mac D. Finlayson has been engaged in the private practice of law in Tulsa since 1976. His practice emphasizes commercial litigation, creditors’ rights and bankruptcy law from a creditor’s perspective. He is nationally recognized for his expertise in the defense of guarantors of student loans in bankruptcy dischargeability adversary proceedings and is licensed to practice before the courts of the State of Oklahoma, the federal district and bankruptcy courts of Oklahoma and Arkansas, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. He is board certified by the American Board of Certification as one of only three “triple-certified” attorneys in the United States in Creditors’ Rights Law, Business and Consumer Bankruptcy Law. Mr. Finlayson currently serves on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the American Board of Certification, and has been conferred the designation of Certified Fraud Examiner by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. He has been a frequent lecturer on issues involving collections, commercial litigation, business and consumer bankruptcy and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

John G. Barnhart joined the Firm effective April 1, 2006. Mr. Barnhart received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma in 1989 where he served as Note Editor of Oklahoma Law Review. He was admitted to the bar in 1989 in Texas and 1993 in Oklahoma. He is also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Northern Districts of Texas and Oklahoma. His practice focuses on workers' compensation defense, insurance defense and commercial litigation.

Paul D. Brunton joined the firm in September, 2006. Mr. Brunton received his undergraduate education at the University of Oklahoma (B.A., 1966) before serving in the U.S. Military (1966-1968). Upon completion of his military service he returned to Oklahoma where he received his law degree from the University of Tulsa in 1971. He served as a member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives (1974-1980) and has served the Tulsa County, Oklahoma and Federal Bar Associations in various capacities. He is a recipient of the Tulsa County Bar Association "Golden Rule Award" (1996), the Tulsa County Bar Association "President's Award", the Oklahoma Bar Association "Earl Sneed Award" and the Oklahoma Criminal Defense Lawyer's "Lord Erskine Award". Mr. Brunton is principally involved in criminal defense and complex litigation.

Tracy M. Beeson joined the firm in September, 2006. Ms. Beeson had been employed as an assistant to and was mentored by James L. Sneed, a longstanding Tulsa estate planning attorney. Mr. Sneed passed away unexpectedly in November of 2005 and his family selected the Firm to carry on his professional legacy. Ms. Beeson joined the firm as an intern during her last semester of law school and was admitted to the Oklahoma Bar in September 2006. She continues to serve many of the clients she worked with under Mr. Sneed's guidance while growing her practice mainly in the areas of estate tax, estate planning, probate, workers' compensation and business law.

Richard Blanchard joined the firm in September 2008. Prior to joining the firm, Blanchard served as Judge of the Workers' Compensation Court for twelve years. During this twelve year period Judge Blanchard spoke at numerous conference and seminars on Workers’ Compensation issues. His practice focuses on Workers’ Compensation, employment law and general trial practice.