Claremore attorney
Biography
Following a law career spanning five decades, local trial attorney Bill Scarth earned numerous awards and recognitions, including Oklahoma Magazine’s Top Attorneys in Oklahoma from 2006-2012. Focused mostly on family law and appellate, he received an AV rating by the LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review for ethical standards and legal ability every year since 1980.
Born in Higgins, Texas, Scarth dropped out of high school when he was 17-years-old to join the U.S. Navy. He spent four years aboard the U.S.S. Yellowstone, circling the Mediterranean Sea during the Cold War conflict, he said. After returning home, Scarth received his GED and enrolled in college at the University of Tulsa and graduated in 1958 with a bachelor’s of science degree in Business Administration. Upon graduation, Scarth went to work as an accountant at Marathon Oil Company and a year later enrolled in law school at the University of Tulsa.
He began practicing in 1963 at Bassmann, Gordon, Mayberry and Lavender Law Firm in Claremore. A year after he went to work for BGML, Oklahoma’s first Republican governor Henry Bellmon ended up appointing attorney Bob Lavender as Supreme Court Justice. Scarth was admitted as a partner around 1966 and the name was changed from Bassmann, Gordon, Mayberry and Lavender to Bassmann, Gordon, Mayberry and Scarth. Scarth went on to later represent the Rogers County Bank on the board for 13 years as he continued to find success in general law and ultimately retired from the firm of Scarth and Rahmeier.
Scarth saw many changes in law throughout his career. Scarth has been happily married to his wife Carol for over 50 years.