Lawton City Council names new city attorney

The City of Lawton has a new city attorney.

City Council members voted Monday to name John R. Andrew as Lawton’s new head attorney. That position is one of four who are hired and fired by the council, and Lawton has been without a permanent city attorney since former City Attorney John Ratliff became interim city manager in March 2023 with the resignation of former City Manager Michael Cleghorn. The council hired Ratliff as city manager in October and began the formal process to hire a new city attorney.

Andrew, now city attorney for the City of Ponca City, is to start his job with Lawton no later than May 31, under the terms of the agreement with the council. His annual salary is to be $160,000.

Andrew joined the Army in 1994 as a signals intelligence analyst and graduated from the Defense Language Institute in 1995. He left the Army in 1998 to work in business management as an operations supervisor with United Parcel Service and the Walmart Information Systems Division.

Andrew rejoined the Army National Guard in 2009 and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011. After retiring from the military, he earned his juris doctorate degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law in 2015. He went to work for the City of Ponca City in 2017, working as assistant city attorney before being named city attorney in 2020.