Oil & Gas and Energy

• Natural gas contracts interpretation and application of federal and state regulation in both state and federal courts and before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

• Working Interest Owner litigation involving Operating Agreements (including COPAS, gas balancing agreements), farmout agreements, joint venture agreements and related disputes between working interest owners

• Service Company litigation involving drilling contracts, well servicing contracts, master service agreements, liens and related matters

• Division Order litigation involving working interest owners, royalty owners and overriding royalty owners

• Lease litigation involving unitization, pooling, drainage, blowouts, royalty obligations (implied and express covenants) and lease termination

• Oil and Gas liens and their foreclosure

• Oil & Gas deeds, leases and other mineral title issues

• Oil and natural gas pipelines, including Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rate and certificate cases

Business and Commercial

• Insurance coverage issues concerning commercial insurance policies as well as life insurance policies

• Secured transactions concerning nature and extent of security interest as well as priority and interpretation of loan agreements, deeds of trust and mortgages

• Corporate, limited partnership, limited liability company organization and governance

• Real estate deeds, leases and other title issues

  Handled litigation in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Colorado, California, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Alabama, Florida and New York. Litigation has been in both state and federal courts. Has handled arbitration of disputes before single arbitrator and before arbitration panels pursuant to rules of the American Arbitration Association.

  Admitted to practice before the following courts: United States Supreme Court, 1978; United States Courts of Appeals, 5th Cir. (1977), D.C. Cir. (1977), 11th Cir. (1982), 10th Cir. (2003); United States Dist. Courts for the Southern District of Texas (1971), Western District of Texas (1988), and Northern District of Texas (1994).

• Negotiated and drafted documents for oil and gas, refinery and other property acquisitions as well as due diligence review, natural gas and crude oil processing agreements

• Negotiated and drafted and provided analysis of farmout agreements, joint venture agreements, operating agreements, drilling contracts, natural gas and crude oil sales contracts (as well as swap and derivative contracts), title opinions and curative, division orders, oil and gas deeds and leases

• Negotiated and drafted loan agreements and related documents for acquisitions as well as mezzanine financing, producing property loans, and asset-based loans

• Negotiate, review and analyze commercial and business contracts
• Structure, formation and governance of corporations, limited liability companies, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships

• Negotiated the first production sharing agreement in the U.S. with an indian tribe

• Chair, Commercial Litigation Section, American Trial Lawyers Association, 1996 - 1997. Chair, Business Torts Subcommittee, 1997 - 2000

• Member: American Trial Lawyers Association, American Bar Association, Houston Bar Association, State Bar of Texas

• Author of “Recent Developments under RICO” published in the Spring 1996 Commercial Litigation Newsletter of the Commercial Litigation Section of the American Trial Lawyers Association

• Author/Speaker for the Commercial Litigation Section of the American Trial Lawyers Association Annual Meeting, August 1996, on “Selected Business Torts”

• Author of “Recent Developments in Take-or-Pay Litigation,” The Natural Resources Law Newsletter, Vol. 20, Section of Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law of the American Bar Association

• Author/Speaker at the State Bar of Texas Advanced Creditors’ Rights Course, October 1996, on “Piercing the Corporate Veil”

• Listed in Who’s Who in America, 2002 --

• Listed in Who’s Who in the World, 1987--

• Listed in Who’s Who in American Law, 1985 --

• Indiana University Indianapolis Law School, Juris Doctor, 1971

• Indiana University, Bachelor of Science in Business, 1967