Bundy

The 2027 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® is officially public today. Congratulations to each of our partners for this distinguished recognition.

Divorces involving business owners and executives often require valuation of equity, deferred compensation, and ownership interests before property can be fairly divided. Early planning protects both careers and companies. Explore your legal options here: https://www.bundylawoffice.com/bentonville-family-lawyer/

What happens when life changes after a custody order is finalized. Courts will modify existing orders for a substantial change in circumstances, such as relocation or income shifts, but proof is required. Review the full guide here: https://www.bundylawoffice.com/tulsa-modification-lawyer/

Marital debt is divided alongside marital assets under Oklahomas equitable distribution laws. Courts weigh who incurred the debt and whether it benefited the marriage. Find additional information here: https://www.bundylawoffice.com/oklahoma-city-asset-division-lawyer/

All four partners are recognized in the 2027 edition of Best Lawyers® Katie and Danya are extraordinary - Katie is listed in 3 categories, and Danya is the youngest to reach the main guide

The 2027 edition of Best Lawyers is out, and every partner at Bundy is in it.

Aaron Bundy. Kathleen Egan. Danya Bundy. Amy Page. All four.

Legal awards are confusing Some "Top 40" and "Top 100" honors are sold, pay-to-play, the plaque arrives after the invoice. Other directories cast a wide net. Best Lawyers is different. It is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, and there is no way to buy in or apply in. The only path is the judgment of other lawyers, including the ones who have faced you in court.

That is what makes this year special. Not one standout carrying the letterhead. The entire roster. The best.

Two of ours stand out even in that company. Kathleen Egan is recognized in 3 areas at once, Appellate Practice, Family Law, and Family Law Mediation, a distinction few lawyers anywhere in the world hold, and one that matches the string of appellate wins she has delivered this year. And Danya Bundy enters the main guide itself, not the young-lawyer list, earlier in her career than anyone we have ever seen do it.

None of this happened by accident. Every lawyer here trains continuously, in trial work, negotiation, and the craft of the courtroom, and we sit together and sharpen each other, because we never wanted to be a firm with one name and a supporting cast. We wanted a firm where the fourth lawyer you meet is as dangerous as the first.

This is who takes your case when you hire Bundy.

"Appellate win" is used loosely by some, so before we announce another, a definition is warranted.

Most appellate wins are appellate defenses. The client prevailed at trial, the other side appealed, and counsel persuaded the reviewing court to change nothing. That work has value, but the nature of appellate review performs most of it. Appellate courts presume the trial court ruled correctly. The appellant carries the burden of demonstrating error, and the judgment will stand otherwise. Nowhere is that deference more formidable than in child custody, where the presumption of correctness is strong. The trial judge watched the witnesses testify, heard every inflection, and weighed credibility firsthand. An appellate court reads a transcript. "Affirmed" is the expected outcome, which is precisely why defending a custody outcome on appeal is ordinary work.

A reversal is a different achievement altogether. It requires persuading a court that never saw a single witness, working from nothing but the written record, that the judge who heard them all was wrong, and wrong by a margin sufficient to overcome every presumption protecting the judgment.

Today, Kathleen Egan completed that ascent again, and this time, due to her remarkable work, the appellate court went further than reversal.

The record showed a history of domestic violence, together with harassment and stalking that continued into the divorce proceeding itself. Remote access to our client's vehicle and the thermostat in her home. A camera installed at her residence without her knowledge. A phone seized and thrown across the room mid-call to 911. The law says that custody or shared parenting with a perpetrator of domestic violence, harassment, or stalking is presumed detrimental and contrary to the best interests of the child. The trial court heard the evidence, made no such finding, and awarded joint custody with equal parenting time.

On appeal, Kathleen established that the presumption was supported by the evidence, that it was never rebutted, and that the joint custody award was contrary to law the evidence. The Court of Civil Appeals agreed on every point, and it did not stop at reversal. It reversed and remanded with instructions, directing the trial court to enter a decree of sole custody for our client. Appellate courts rarely disturb a custody judgment. Rarer still is the court that declines to order a retrial and instead directs the result. The children will not be returned to limbo. The outcome is decided.

The way an appellate decision reads, the result always looks inevitable. It never is. Inevitability is what mastery looks like after the fact, and it is what Kathleen Egan delivers.

In the Marriage of Steward, Case No. 123,318 (Okla. Civ. App., Aug. 14, 2026).

If a judgment deserves a second look, in your case or one you know of, our appellate department reviews trial outcomes for precisely this kind of error. We are easy to reach.

The law is nearly silent on one of the biggest decisions in a divorce.

No statute in Arkansas, Oklahoma, or Missouri says who should leave the marital home and who should stay. No rule chooses between renting, buying, or moving in with family. A judge may eventually have opinions about everything, but the court arrives late. These decisions get made first, in the weeks before any judge hears the case.

Where the law is silent, planning wins. The spouse who shows up to a temporary hearing with a signed lease in the children's school zone, a property inventory, and a reason and receipt for every decision is in a different position than the spouse who improvised. Same facts. Same law. Different case.

The internet's current favorite warning, that leaving forfeits the house, is a myth. In none of our three states does walking out the door transfer ownership or waive interest in marital equity. Marital property gets divided on the factors the courts actually apply, and those factors are about the marriage and the finances, not about who slept where during or immediately prior to the case.

The myth only matters because people obey it. They stay in corrosive, sometimes dangerous households for months to guard an interest that was never at risk, and the staying does more damage to the case, and to them, than leaving ever could have.

So put the equity question down. The real questions are elsewhere.

What leaving actually changes: the status quo, access to your own belongings, and the cost of running two households.

Separation changes the status quo, and the arrangement running on hearing day tends to be the one that continues. It changes access, because the things you leave behind now require cooperation to retrieve. And it changes the math, because two households cost more than one.

Kids should not cross the state line without written permission or a court order. We work where three states meet, and a 40 minute drive can violate an order even when it satisfies a mileage rule. Jay to Bentonville is well under Oklahoma's 75 mile relocation threshold and still breaks the injunction. A brief trip is fine. A move is not. And nothing turns a move back into a trip after the fact.

Let the school pick the address. A move that keeps the kids in their own classrooms is almost impossible to attack. A move that changes their school mid -case invites a fight unnecessarily.

Stay with people you trust if you can. Sign a lease if you cannot. Hotels and Airbnbs are the last resort with kids, because a judge who hears the children spent weeks in a hotel hears instability, whatever the reason was.

If you buy during the case, the new house is presumptively marital in all three states. If your parent buys the house and you live in it, keep it formal. Market rent, paid on time, under a written lease.

Inventory everything before anything moves. Birth certificates, jewelry, coins, fi****ms, heirlooms, art. Small things disappear during separations, and the other side never remembers seeing them. The picture you take before you leave is often the only proof the thing existed. You can protect what is at risk. A safe deposit box or a storage unit preserves property, and preserving is exactly what is required. Just document it and keep your lawyer in the loop.

If there is violence, none of this matters. Get safe first. Every state we practice in has same day protection, and leaving to be safe costs you nothing in court.

And always have a second plan. Leases fall through. Relatives change their minds. The people who end up in extended stay hotels are usually the ones who had exactly one plan.

The law does not say who leaves. It rewards whoever prepares better. That should be you.

Bundy. Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. Peace through strength.

A common misconception is that mothers are automatically favored in custody decisions. Oklahoma law requires courts to evaluate the best interests of the child without gender preference. Understand your rights here: https://www.bundylawoffice.com/tulsa-fathers-rights-lawyer/

What makes a divorce high asset. There is no set dollar threshold, but business ownership, multiple properties, and significant investments often place a case in this category. Understand how these cases differ here: https://www.bundylawoffice.com/blog/what-constitutes-a-high-asset-divorce-in-bentonville/