Best Lawyers in America for Oil and Gas Law
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William A. Horn received his bachelor's degree with honors from the University of Wisconsin and graduated cum laude from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Bill specializes in environmental, oil and gas, eminent domain, water and riparian rights, land use and public utility law, as well as civil and administrative litigation, and has been representing and counseling private and public sector clients in these areas since 1982. In addition to having served as an adjunct professor for a law...
Kevin represents a diverse clientele in virtually all aspects of the energy industry. With a background in petroleum geology, he has operated and participated in oil and gas exploration and development projects across North America. As a transactional lawyer, he has represented owners and operators with documentation, due diligence, and business counseling for acquisitions and divestitures and for exploration and operation. As a trial lawyer, he has represented plaintiffs and defendants, both...
Nicki Carlsen is the co-leader of the firm’s Environment, Land Use & Natural Resources Group. Her practice focuses on land use, environmental compliance and litigation. She has over 25 years of experience with the federal, state and local regulations affecting development projects, including land use planning and subdivision laws, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), California Coastal Act, National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act, endangered species act...
Bob Duplantis has dedicated his entire career to the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining the firm in 1982 and establishing its Lafayette office, Bob spent more than a decade serving in-house oil company legal departments, including six years as a lobbyist in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Bob’s law practice focuses on Louisiana oil and gas regulation and “meat-and-potato” legal issues. He routinely argues contract disputes affecting the oil and gas industry, including lease inte...
Randall Rich is the partner-in-charge of the Washington, DC office. Throughout his over 40 years of experience, beginning in the Office of General Counsel of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and continuing for more than 23 years at the DC office of a large Texas law firm, Randy always strives to form close personal bonds with clients as well as trusting relationships with both regulators and his colleagues in the energy bar. He gains an intimate understanding of the business an...
David has significant trial experience with complex commercial, intellectual property, trust and estates, tax, energy, and environmental litigation matters in both state and federal courts. He has successfully tried to verdict complex litigation matters in state and federal courts, and under the rules of the American Arbitration Association. He has successfully argued before state and federal appellate courts. In addition, he has experience with matters before state and federal administrative...
Gregg Laswell has been a trial lawyer for nearly four decades. He began with a large national firm, where he practiced for 13 years, moved to a large international firm, where he practiced for 7 years, and then joined some of his former partners in 2004 at Hicks Thomas, where he has practiced for the last 18 years. His practice has focused almost exclusively on business and commercial litigation and while he has significant experience in various industries and practice areas, a primary emphas...
Clients, including private equity funds, seeking to expand operations, divest businesses, or commit capital benefit from Mitchell’s transactional experience across various industries, including oil and gas, manufacturing, renewable energy, and telecommunications. Mitchell Griffith focuses his practice on mergers and acquisitions, private equity and venture capital, securities offerings, corporate governance, and other corporate matters. His experience includes equity financings for priv...
Aimee Hebert helps clients in the energy business solve their challenging legal problems. Her experience includes disputes that involve mineral royalties, mineral lease termination, implied obligations, mineral servitude maintenance, operating agreements, production handling agreements, blowouts, and oilfield environmental issues. She represents both individuals and businesses and gets excellent results. Ms. Hebert has been recognized in the Best Lawyers in America® ranking every year sin...
Lee Fanyo is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Energy Law and Oil and Gas Law. Lee, who practices law in Denver, Colorado, has been recognized since 2020. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Lee is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.
Paul H. Stephenson, III was admitted to the Mississippi Bar in 1977. He is also admitted to practice before all state and federal district courts in Mississippi, as well as the Supreme Court of the United States and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His practice has focused on business, commercial and financial disputes at the trial and appellate levels involving a wide array of subject matters. Paul's experience includes complex class actions, oil and gas controversie...
John Thompson is a partner in the firm's Oil and Gas/Energy practice. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree from Vanderbilt University in 1997 and graduated in 2000 from the University of Texas School of Law, where he was a member of the law journal, The Review of Litigation. Mr. Thompson represents clients in litigation involving a wide variety of oil and gas matters before state and federal courts at both the trial and appellate levels.
Bill Benitez is a partner in the Houston office of Kirkland & Ellis LLP. His practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, equity investments, recapitalizations, joint ventures and corporate governance, with a particular emphasis on the energy and infrastructure sector. Clients have described Bill as a “great practitioner” who provides “incredible client service” in connection with his recognition in various industry publications, including Chambers Global, The Wor...
Tony Marino’s practice focuses on energy transactions and regulatory matters. His work includes drafting and negotiating oil and gas agreements, acquisitions and divestures of mineral properties, and energy financings. Additionally, he advises clients on regulatory issues on mineral leases both onshore in Louisiana and offshore in state and federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Tony represents clients before regulatory agencies, including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Manage...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.