On July 27, 2017, Halliburton agreed to settle a cease and desist proceeding brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), charging it with violating the books and records and internal accounting controls provisions of the Foreign Corrupt […]
This baby is called the Texas anti-SLAPP law,[i] or the Texas Citizens Participation Act (“TCPA”).[ii] The birth was attended to by then-Governor Perry who brought the swaddling law to eagerly-awaiting, yet diverse, “parents,” such as the Better […]
We began 2Q17 with a discussion of the intersection of the oil patch with class actions and the Fair Labor Standards Act; the federal government’s liability for the environmental cleanup of refinery waste; and a shortsighted discovery ruling that could […]
Our energy law podcast is back from a brief hiatus for the Independence Day holiday with a quick look at the legal developments in oil-and-gas law that July has brought us so far.
Increasingly, class actions are—for all intents and purposes—won or lost at the certification stage. After all, if a class is certified, especially under the heightened standards for class treatment that have been articulated by the United States […]
Yesterday, the Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, signed an order that seeks to tamp down on delays in the permitting of federal land for oil-and-gas exploration and production activities. The Interior Department's press release is available here […]
Late last week, the Texas Supreme Court told a cautionary tale for operators with its unanimous opinion in Samson Exploration LLC v. T.S. Reed Properties Inc., which addressed the circumstance in which a well is situated within not just one pooled unit […]
In this week's edition of our energy law podcast, you'll learn about multiple decisions that came out of the Texas Supreme Court on Friday, which can directly impact your operations in the oil patch, as well as one of the first jury verdicts […]
On Friday, a deeply divided Texas Supreme Court—in a surprising turn of events—disturbed long-standing rules for interpreting mineral conveyances in its 5-4 decision in Wenske v. Ealy. There, when the Wenskes bought property in Lavaca County in 1998 […]
Your non-solicitation agreement with your employees in the oil patch may have just been gutted by a new decision from a Texas court of appeals. Join me and employment lawyer Andrea Johnson for the latest episode of the firm's […]
Last week, the Supreme Court “giveth and taketh away” in a case involving the sale of a ranch, critically including subsurface mineral interests. Specifically, in Kinsel v. Lindsey, the Court clarified that it has not recognized a cause of action […]