Jerry Goodman

Jerry L. Goodman (also known as Jerry Goodman) was born April 17, 1939, in Mangum, Oklahoma. He was a judge on the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals, an intermediate appellate court in the state of Oklahoma, for twenty-five years. Appointed to the court by Governor David Walters on July 26, 1994, Goodman was retained by voters in 1996, 2002, and 2008. On November 4, 2014, voters returned him for a full term ending January 10, 2021, with a favorable vote of 60.4 percent. Judge Goodman was elected chief judge of the court for a one-year term in 2016.

Early life and career Goodman was the son of a meat market owner in Mangum, Oklahoma. Goodman worked as an assistant Tulsa city attorney for several years, served in the U.S. Department of Justice's Antitrust Division's trial section, and was a U.S. Senate staffer. Goodman also acted as a labor arbitrator for the National Railway Mediation Board.

After practicing law for nearly twenty years, Goodman was named CEO of Otasco, where he also served as general counsel.

Goodman has served as the vice president of the Tulsa County Bar Association and on the Grand River Dam Authority.

In 2016, Judge Goodman was selected to a one-year term as chief judge of the court, replacing Bill Hetherington of Oklahoma City, who had served as chief in 2015.

Goodman spoke to those present at the swearing-in ceremony about the political efforts to return to the direct election of judges - the system that existed before the reforms of the late 1960s. He said, that he would vigorously defend the state's current election system. “I am old enough to have practiced under the old system of elected judges — prior to 1969 — and since.”

Goodman retired from the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals effective July 31, 2019.

Family Goodman is married. He and his wife, Donna have four children.

Memberships American Bar Association Oklahoma Bar Association Tulsa County Bar Associations American Judicature Society Oklahoma Judicial Conference