Oil, Gas & Energy Litigation

The firm's energy litigation lawyers are active in courts in Louisiana as well as in Texas and Arkansas. Representative disputes include claims involving: lease and ownership, exploration and operation, drilling contracts, gas gathering and transportation as well as pipeline construction issues. Our litigators include attorneys recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® and Super Lawyers in Louisiana® in oil and gas law and commercial litigation. They also have an active arbitration practice and include a member certified as an AAA arbitrator on the Special Energy Panel.

Representative Matters

Represented an international oil and gas producer in a suit to establish primacy of oil and gas lease of mineral servitude owner in Haynesville Shale play against competing lease from surface owners. In late 2012 the State of Louisiana attempted to intervene in the matter seeking to overturn a prior ruling of the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1922 declaring Dolet Bayou non-navigable. We successfully defeated the intervention and preserved the nearly century old precedent against the State’s attack. The State has now appealed the dismissal of the intervention to the Court of Appeals.
Represented co-executor of a Succession suit to terminate oil and gas lease for lapse of production, for damages for non-payment of royalties and for double royalties, interest, costs and attorneys’ fees. The Court entered judgment in favor of the executors for unpaid royalties plus an award of damages equal to the amount of royalties for a total award in excess of $3.6 million, including an additional award of attorneys’ fees in excess of $500,000. An appeal is pending.