Annual Institute on Mineral Law
Volume 58 The 58th Annual Institute on Mineral Law Article 18
3-24-2011 Speaker Bios
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Repository Citation (2011) "Speaker Bios," Annual Institute on Mineral Law: Vol. 58 , Article 18. Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/mli_proceedings/vol58/iss1/18
This Addendum is brought to you for free and open access by the Mineral Law Institute at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Annual Institute on Mineral Law by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. et al.: Speaker Bios
Speaker Bios
The 58th Mineral Law Institute March 24 & 25, 2011 LSU Law Center ANDREW M. ABRAMEIT is an Associate at the Houston office of Gordon Arata McCollam Duplantis & Eagan LLC, where he has a diverse practice involving transactions and litigation related to energy and real estate. Andrew participates in all phases of oil and gas acquisition due diligence, drafting of title opinions, oil and gas leasing, and the review of gas purchase agreements. With respect to real estate, Andrew represents owners, lenders, and investors in the acquisition, sale, development, and financing of commercial real estate projects. Andrew has advised clients on the purchase and sale of retail locations for O'Reilly Auto Parts, Arby's Restauranis, Family Dollar stores, auto dealerships, hotels, and dozens of ranches. His litigation experience has encompassed prosecuting and defending oil and gas royalty disputes, access easements, boundary disputes, joint operating agreements, mechanic's liens, construction defects, water rights, breaches of contract, and collection matters, Andrew received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 2006. While attending law school in Austin, he served as a legislative aide for natural resource issues to Senator Ken Armbrister. In addition, Andrew served as the 2005-2006 Student Editor-in-Chief of the Texas Environmental Law Journal. Prior to law school, Andrew worked as a real estate loan officer for Capital Farm Credit. He graduated cum laude from Texas A&M University with a B.S. in Agricultural Economics in 2001. When he is not practicing law, Andrew enjoys ranching and hunting with his family and friends in his south Texas hometown of Goliad, Texas.
JODEE N. BRUYNINCKX is Director of North Louisiana for the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association (LOGA). Jodee supports the Association efforts in North Louisiang.. She opened the new Shreveport office in September 2008 and is focusing on issues relating to the Haynesville Shale. Originally from Monroe, Louisiana, Jodee attended LSU in Baton Rouge for her undergraduate work and Tulane Law School in New Orleans, where she received her Juris Doctor and Civil Law Certification. Upon moving to Washington, D.C after law school, she spent 3 years as Legislative Counsel for Congressman Rodney Alexander from Louisiana's Fifth Congressional District. Jodee then served as Deputy Finance Director for Congressman Jindal's successful campaign for Governor. During the Gubernatorial Transition, she held the position of Economic Development and Natural Resources Policy Director. In that role, she headed the Natural Resources Advisory Council, which wrote
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the Policy Recommendations for Governor Jindal's transition to office. As a Policy Advisor in the Governor's Office, her issues included Natural Resources, Environment, Agriculture, and Wildlife and Fisheries. She currently resides in Shreveport and was married to Dr. Kyle Bruyninckx in February 2009.
JOHN J. COSTONIS is Chancellor Emeritus, and holds the Judge Albert Tate and Rosemary Neal Hawkland Professorship at LSU Law Center. Professor Costonis is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, attended area public schools, Harvard University (A.B.) and Columbia Law School (L.L.B.). After service as a United States Army Counter-Intelligence officer, he attended the Universities of Pavia and Rome, Italy for graduate studies in philosophy. Professor Costonis has clerked or practiced with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling and the Chicago, Ill. law firm of Ross & Hardies. He has taught as a regular or visiting faculty member at the law schools of the University of Pennsylvania, Illinois, Berkeley and New York University, and served, successively, as the Vanderbilt Law School dean and the LSU Law Center chancellor (1998-June 2007). His practice, teaching, scholarship, and consulting have focused on environmental, property, land use, and historic preservation issues. Professor Costonis is a member of the Advisory Commission to the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. He received the Louisiana State Bar Association's Annual Outstanding Article in the Louisiana Bar Journal for his 2005 article, Avenal v. State: Takings and Damagings in Louisiana.
RANDALL S. DAVIDSON is a Partner in the law firm of Davidson, Jones & Summers in Shreveport. His practice areas include, Commercial Litigation, Oil and Gas Exploration and Acquisitions; Commercial Transactions; Corporate Transactions; Bankruptcy Chapter 11; Bankruptcy Reorganization; Construction Law; Gaming Law; Real Estate; Due Diligence Investigations; Commercial Lending; Security Devices; Mergers and Acquisitions; Business Formations; Environmental Regulation; Zoning and Local Regulation; Estate Planning; Health and Medical Services. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University (A.B., cum laude, 1973), and his law degree in 1976 from Louisiana State University, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif. His bar admissions include, Louisiana (1976); U.S. District Court, Western District of Louisiana (1977); U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (1978); U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit (1982). Author: Article, "The Overriding Royalty," 27th Annual Louisiana Institute on Mineral Law, 1980. Chairman, Harvard University "Schools Committee" for North Louisiana, 1986-. President: Riverfront Merchants Association, Inc., 1994-1995; President, Shreveport 2000 Coalition Inc., 1998-1999. Member: Shreveport, Louisiana State and American Bar Associations.
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Mr. Davidson holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubble National Lawyer Referral Publication and is a member of the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. PHILIP E. DOWNER, III is a partner in the law firm of Downer, Huguet & Wilhite, L.L.C., in Shreveport. His practice areas include General Civil Practice, Oil and Gas Law, Mineral Law, Environmental Law, Natural Resources, Commercial Litigation, and Commercial Transactions. Mr. Downer was admitted to the Louisiana bar in1985 after graduating from Louisiana State University Law Center. He is admitted to practice before the United States District Court for the Western District and Middle District of Louisiana, the United States Court of Appeal: for the Fifth Circuit, and the United States Court of Federal Claims. He is a member of the Shreveport, Louisiana State and American Bar Associations, and is a Master in the Harry V. Booth - Henry A. Politz American Inn of Court.
KENNETH R. FEINBERG is an attorney and one of the nation's leading experts in mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He is the managing partne2 of Feinberg Rozen, LLP, in Washington, D.C. Mr. Feinberg was designated by the Obama Administration and British Petroleum (BP) t serve as Administrator, Gulf Coast Claims Facility in 2010. He was appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury in 2009 to serve as the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. In this capacity, Mr. Feinberg was responsible for determining annual compensation packages for senior corporate officials at companies that received the most taxpayer financial assistance. He was also appointed by the Attorney General of the United States to serve as the Special Master of the Federal September 1Ith Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. In this capacity, he developed and promulgated the Regulations governing the administration of the Fund and administered all aspects of the program, including evaluating applications, determining appropriate compensation and disseminating awards. Mr. Feinberg was the Fund Administrator responsible for the design, implementation and administration of the claims process for the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund following the trajic shootings at Virginia Tech University. He was also retained by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and Zurich Insurance Company to design, implement and administer an Alternative Dispute Resolution Progaram for resolving insurance claims arising out of Hurricane Katrin. and other hurricanes in the Gulf region. Mr. Feinberg was appointed as Receiver in New York State Common Retirement Fund v. 711 Third Avenue Associates (New York Supreme Court Index No. 114250/97) to collect and receive all rents and profits of the mortgaged property and to enter into leases and terminate or continue any contracts necessary to protect the mortgaged properties. He was appointed in June of 2007 as the Distribution Agent In Re: United States Securities and
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Exchange Commission v. American International Group, Inc., responsible for the preparation and implementation of a Plan for the distribution of a Fair Fund of $800 million to eligible claimants. He has also served as Fund Administrator in other prominent settlements including: In Re: United States of America v. Computer Associates International,Inc. (responsible for the design and implementation of a restitution fund of $275 million); In Re: InternationalAir Transportation Surcharge Antitrust Litigation (responsible for the design and administration of a $200 million fund); In Re: Zyprexa Product Liability Litigation (a $700 million settlement fund); In Re: Latino Officers Association City of New York, Inc., et al., v The City of New York et al.(a $17 million settlement fund). Mr. Feinberg received his B.A. cum laude from the University of Massachusetts in 1967 and his J.D. from New York University School of Law in 1970, where he was Articles Editor of the Law Review. He was a Law Clerk for Chief Judge Stanley H. Fuld, New York State Court of Appeals from 1970 to 1972; Assistant United States Attorney, Southern District of New York from 1972 to 1975; Special Counsel, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary from 1975 to 1980; Administrative Assistant to Senator Edward M. Kennedy from 1977 to 1979; Partner at Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler from 1980 to 1993; and founded The Feinberg Group, LLP in 1993. Mr. Feinberg has also been a Court-Appointed Special Settlement Master, mediator and arbitrator in thousands of disputes. He was also one of three arbitrators selected to determine the fair market value of the original Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination and was one of two arbitrators selected to determine the allocation of legal fees in the Holocaust slave labor litigation. He was a member of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Human Radiation Experiments from 1994 to 1998; the Presidential Commission on Catastrophic Nuclear Accidents from 1989 to 1990 and the Carnegie Commission Task Force on Science and Technology in Judicial and Regulatory Decision Making from 1989 to 1993. He is currently a member of the National Judicial Panel, Center for Public Resources, and previously chaired the American Bar Association Special Committee on Mass Torts from 1988 to 1989. He is also a national arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association. Mr. Feinberg is currently Chairman Elect of the Board of the RAND Institute of Civil Justice, is Vice-Chairman of the Board of Human Rights First and is a member of the Board of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. He has had a distinguished teaching career as Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, University of Pennsylvania Law School, New York University School of Law, the University of Virginia Law School and Columbia Law School. He has also taught as a visiting lecturer at UCLA Law School, Vanderbilt Law School, New York Law School and Duke Law School. Mr. Feinberg is currently President of the Washington National Opera. He was
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designated "Lawyer of the Year" by the National Law Journal (December, 2004). He is listed in "Profiles in Power: The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America" (National Law Journal, May 2, 1988; March 25, 1991; April 4, 1994; June 12, 2000; June 19, 2006). He is the author of numerous articles and essays on mediation, mass torts and other matters and is the author of, What is Life Worth? The UnprecedentedEffort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 (Public Affairs 2005).
PROFESSOR FRANCIS MCGOVERN, Duke University School of Law, has the unusual ability to integrate practical experience, abstract thinking, and teaching. This has earned him the "triple crown" in the legal community as premier practitioner, scholar, and teacher in the field of alternative dispute resolution. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Professor McGovern was among the first in the nation to write about and to use alternative dispute resolution (ADR) techniques to avoid or to improve the litigation process. Two decades later, the federal judiciary, many state courts, and institutions around the world, such as the United Nations, all see c his guidance on practical and conceptual issues in dispute resolution. His name is virtually synonymous with "mass claim" litigation--the often tens of thousands of tort claims arising out of a major disaster or major product liability issue. As a court-appointed special master or neutral expert, he has developed solutions in most of the significant mass claim litigation in the U.S., including the DDT toxic exposure litigation in Alabama, the Dalkon-Shield controversy, and his current work involving the silicone gel breast implant litigation. Seeing that these mass claims would take years to reach and proceed through trial at tremendous expense to the parties and courts, Professor McGovern pioneered new roles for court-appointed special masters as "case managers" and "settlement masters." As a case manager, he organizes the protrial administration of a case, and uses ADR techniques to help the parties agree on efficient discovery approaches and schedules. The role of settlement master has often required that he develop innovative ways to implement potential settlements. In the Dalkon Shield litigation, he helped organize and administer the distribution of the $2.4 billion trust established to compensate 100,000 women who had sued the maker of the device. To facilitate his efforts, Professor McGovern has created very sopiisticated computerized models of the valuation of these massive claims. By estimating what the claims are worth to the plaintiffs or will cost the defendants, his models narrow the range of reasonable settlement amounts and help parties to settle more quickly. Countries outside the United States now are recognizing the effectiveness of Professor McGovern's work. Working with United Nations Compensation Commission, which was set up to ensure that Iraq compensates cit:[zens, businesses and government agencies for losses
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suffered in the Persian Gulf War, Professor McGovern is helping construct a legal framework for handling the 2.6 million claims for reparations from Iraq. He also is developing a transnational ADR center in Europe to handle torts, including silicone gel breast implants and HIV infected blood cases, that cross national boundaries. A prolific writer, Professor McGovern is the co-author of two published books, Successful Litigation Techniques and The Preparationof a Product Liability Case, and two books in progress, Toxic Substances Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution. Both practitioners and scholars rely on his writing for its integration of extensive practical experience with conceptual analysis of fundamental problems in dispute resolution and complex litigation. Professor McGovern's most widely known contribution to the scholarship in this area is his development of the seminal concept of "maturity" in mass torts--a concept generally accepted as critical in analysis of mass torts. At Duke, he looks forward to greater opportunities for empirical research on new ADR approaches in association with the Law School's Private Adjudication Center. Professor McGovern is widely sought as a teacher, but not only by students enrolled in law school. In addition to carrying a full load of classes, he has given over 50 speeches in the last two years to academics, judges, and lawyers on issues ranging from international dispute resolution to an update of the law of product liability. Professor McGovern has been motivated in all of his undertakings, practical, conceptual and educational, by the public's decreased faith in traditional governmental systems and procedures for resolving disputes. He wants these systems, like the courts, and procedures, including litigation, to work better. Working better, to him, means operating both more efficiently and in a manner that leaves participants feeling satisfied about the process and results. He received his undergraduate degree (B.A.) from Yale University in 1967, and his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1973. He served in the United States Marine Corps from 1969-1971 and attained the rank of Captain. MARJORIE A. McKEITHEN co-chairs the Energy Industry Team at the Jones Walker law firm in New Orleans. She affiliated with the firm after serving as Secretary of the Louisiana Mineral Board and Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Office of Mineral Resources, where she oversaw the granting and administering of mineral leases on state-owned lands and water bottoms. While serving as Secretary of the Louisiana Mineral Board, Ms. McKeithen undertook a comprehensive revision of Louisiana's statutory scheme relating to leases for natural gas storage and carbon dioxide storage. In addition to her traditional oil and gas practice, Ms. McKeithen currently serves as counsel to several pipeline companies and Louisiana gas storage facilities, including both salt dome and depleted reservoir storage facilities. She also serves as counsel for a geothermal energy company.
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After clerking with the Honorable Frank J. Polozola in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana, Ms. McKeithen was in the private practice cf law from 1992-2006 with a concentration in civil litigation, including environmental and toxic tort litigation. Previously, she served as campaign manager to her father, W. Fox McKeithen, during his initial campaign for the office of Louisiana Secretary of State. Ms. McKeithen received her juris doctor degree from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Lou:siana State University, in 1991, and her Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Land Management from Louisiana State University in 1987. She is currently a Commission Member of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission and has served in various capacities in other community and civic organizations.
PROFESSOR LINEA S. MULLENIX holds the Rita and Morris Atlas Chair in Advocacy at the University of Texas School of Law, and from 1991- 2001 was the Beinard J. Ward Centennial Professor of Law. Professor Mullenix is the author or co-author of ten books including Leading Cases in Civil Procedur? (2010); Mass Tort Litigation (2d ed. 2008); Federal Courts in the Twenty-First Century (3d ed. 2007); State Class Action Practice and Procedure (2000); Restatement Third, The Law Governing Lawyers (2000); Understanding Federal Courts (1998); and Moore's Federal Practice (2d and 3d Eds.). She teaches federal civil procedure, mass tort litigation, current issues in class action litigation, class action litigation in a global context, and state class action procedure. She has been a college ard law professor since 1974, and has taught complex litigation, federal courts, conflicts, professional responsibility, and civil justice reform. Professor Mullenix graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the City College of New York and holds masters and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University in political science. She received her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and practiced in Washington, D.C. During 1989-90 she was a Supreme Court Fellow at the Federal Judicial Center. Professor Mullenix has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Michigan, and Southern Methodist law schools, the Reuschlein Distinguished Visiting Chair at Villanova law school, and the Katherine Ryan Distinguished Professor at St. Mary's Institute on World Legal Problems in Innsbruck, Austria. In 2002 she was a scholar-in-residence at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy. During spring 2007 she held the Fulbright Senior Distinguished Chair in Law, in Trento, Italy. Professor Mullenix is a contributing editor and writer for Preview of Supreme Court Cases and a regular columnist on class action litigation for the National Law Journal. She is a member of the American Law Institute, Associate Reporter for the Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers, a consultative member of the Transnational Rules of Civil Procedure, and the Complex Litigation Project an elected Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, and
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an elected member of the International Association of Procedural Law. Professor Mullenix has written hundreds of articles relating to class action litigation and procedural law, published in The Chicago Legal Forum, Cornell Law Review, Georgetown University Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Stanford Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Northwestern Law Review, Texas Law Review, and Vanderbilt Law Review, as well as numerous other journals. Professor Mullenix served as Reporter for an ABA Task Force on Class Actions (1995-97), Reporter for the Southern District of Texas, 1990 Civil Justice Reform Act, Reporter for the National Conference of Federal-State Judicial Relationships (1992), Advisor, Texas Class Action Rules Subcommittee (1998), and Advisor, National Center for State Courts, Study on Civil Discovery (1990-92). As a consequence of her experience in complex litigation and class action practice, Professor Mullenix has been an invited participant, and delivered papers and presentations, at the Conference on the Future of Class Action Litigation in America, sponsored by the American Bar Association (Boston 2003); Symposium on Cutting Edge Issues in Class Action Litigation, The Legal Forum, University of Chicago (2002); Class Action Conference, Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (2001); the Gulf States Class Action Symposium (2000)(Tulane University Law School); the University of Pennsylvania Symposium: Mass Torts (1999), the ABA Class Action Institute (1999, 2000, 2004, 2005); the Mass Tort Working Group, Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (1999-98); the Special Study Conference on Federal Rules Governing Attorney Conduct, Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (1996-2001); the Research Conference on Class Actions, Institute for Judicial Administration and N.Y.U. (1995); the Conference on Civil Procedure and the Future of the Federal Rules, Southwest Legal Foundation and S.M.U. University (1995); and the National Mass Tort Litigation Conference (1994). She also has served as a faculty member for the Annual Conference on Complex Litigation and Resolution of Class Action Litigation, sponsored by Glasser and Thomson LegalWorks (2003, 2005, 2006, 2007)(New York, San Francisco). She has delivered lectures and papers relating to class action litigation in Austria, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Brazil. Courts throughout the United States have cited Professor Mullenix's articles on procedure and complex litigation, including the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth Judicial Circuits; federal district courts for the Middle District of Alabama, Northern District of Georgia, the District of Massachusetts, the District of Minnesota, the Western District of Missouri, the District of New Mexico, the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the District of South
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Carolina, and the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. In iddition, she has been cited by the Supreme Courts of Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin; and appellate courts in Missouri and Texas. Professor Mullenix has appeared as a radio commentator on National Public Radio, discussing class action litigation. The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the National Law Journal, and other media publications frequently have quoted her as an expert on complex litigation and class action litigation. Professor Mullenix has worked with plaintiffs, defendants, and objectors on numerous prominent federal and state class action cases, including the reported cases of Cimino v. Raymark, Georgive v. Amchem, Ahearn v. Fibreboard,In the Matter of Rhone-Poulenc, Castano v. American Tobacco Co., Bolin v. Sears Roebuck, In the Matter of Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc., Falise v. American Tobacco Co., the Simon II litigation, In re Mexican Money Transfer Litigation, Hayden v. Atochem, and the Alabama MDL 1130 Non-Filing Insurance Fee Litigation. In Texas, she has worked on the reported cases Ford Motor Company v. Sheldon, Wagner & Brown v. Horwood, Samuelson v. United Health Care Corp., DairylandMutual v. Casburg, Leonard v. Farmers Ins. Co., Rowe v. National Western Life Ins. Co., Bolanos v. Citizens Ins. Co., and Capital One Bank v. Rollins. During the past decade, she has worked on more than seventy state class action cases in numerous Texas venues. She has been involved with state class actions in Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington. In zddition, Professor Mullenix has worked on Canadian class actions in Ontario and British Columbia, class action litigation under the Brazilian Consumer Protection Act, London arbitrations relating to settlement of mass tort claims, and has been an adviser regarding proposed Swedish and Finnish class action legislation. Her experience in class action litigation includes breast implant, pacemaker lead, fen-phen, Biycol, medical monitoring, employment discrimination, securities, insurance, oil and gas, RICO, and consumer class actions. Her involvement includes pre-petition planning, development of pleadings, motions, discovery, certification hearings, notice, settlement, fairness hearings, fee petilions, and appellate briefing. PATRICK S. OTTINGER is a partner in the Lafayette law firm of Ottinger Hebert, L.L.C. He has been in private practice in Lafayette since December 1973. Mr. Ottinger's practice has been concentrated in the corporate and commercial area, with emphasis on oil and gas, financial transactions, real estate, eminent domain, mediation and arbitration, corporate and bariking matters, as well as litigation in these areas. He graduated from the University of Southwestern Louisiana with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1971. He received his Juris Doctorate
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degree in December 1973 from Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center, where he was a member of the Moot Court Board. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at LSU where, since 1996, he has taught the course in Mineral Rights. Also, Mr. Ottinger serves on the Advisory Council of the Mineral Law Institute. He has also served as Chair of the Section on Mineral Law of the Louisiana State Bar Association. He is the author of the course materials entitled Ottinger, A Course Book on LouisianaMineral Rights (11th Rev. Ed., August 2010). He is a member of the Mineral Code Committee and the Tax Sales Committee of the Louisiana State Law Institute. He has.been a Special Assistant Attorney General, representing the State of Louisiana in waterbottoms litigation. Mr. Ottinger served as City-Parish Attorney for the Lafayette City-Parish Consolidated Government from January 2004- January 2011. In that capacity, he is the chief legal advisor to the City- Parish President, the Consolidated Council and all of the departments and offices of government. He is admitted to practice in all Federal Courts in Louisiana, and in the United States Court of Appeal, Fifth Circuit. Since 1986, he has been admitted to practice in the State of Texas in which state he also maintains both a transactional and litigation practice. He has organized and spoken at numerous continuing legal education seminars on oil and gas, banking and real estate topics sponsored by Louisiana State Bar Association, Lafayette Association of Professional Landmen, Houston Association of Professional Landmen, Houston Bar Association and University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana - Lafayette) -- Continuing Education Department. He is an experienced arbitrator and mediator in oil and gas matters. Mr. Ottinger served as the President of the Louisiana State Bar Association during the years 1998-89. He is a Fellow of the Louisiana Bar Foundation and served on its Board of Directors from 2003-2007. He has served as President of the Lafayette Parish Bar Association and as a Member of the Board of Governors of the Louisiana State Bar Association. He served as Chair of the Reading Committee in connection with the publication of the Louisiana Professional Responsibility Law and Practice (Dane S. Ciolino, Editor), a project initiated during Mr. Ottinger's term as President of the Louisiana State Bar Association.
JOSEPH L. "LARRY" SHEA, JR. is a Partner in the Shreveport law firm of Bradley Murchison Kelly & Shea LLC. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974 from Tulane University, and was awarded a Juris Doctor, ranking in the top ten in his class, in 1978 from Louisiana State University. At LSU, he was a member of Delta Theta Phi, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Delta Phi, and Order of the Coif. He was a member of the Louisiana Law Review from 1976 to 1978 and served as Executive Editor from 1977 to 1978. He was the winner of the Robert L. Tullis Moot Court Competition in 1978 and was later inducted into the
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Louisiana State University Paul M. Hebert Law Center Hall of Fame. He was admitted to the Louisiana Bar in 1978, to the Texas Bar in 1996, to the Bars of the United States Court of Appeals, Fifth, Eighth, and Eleventh Circuits, and of the United States Supreme Court in 1998. Mr. Shea's areas of practice include oil & gas and energy (litigation and transactional work), toxic tort and environmental litigation, insurance defense, including products liability, tax litigation, banking and financial litigation, and contract and commercial (litigation and transactional work). He was honored to serve as a member of the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board from 1995-2002, and as Chairman in 2002. Over the years he has been appointed to serve on various committees of the Louisiana Suprerre Court, including the Supreme Court Task Force on Lawyer Advertising and Supreme Court Ad Hoc Committee to Study the Finances and Workload of the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board. He has been a very active member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, for which he was honored as a recipient of the 2002 Louisiana State :3ar Association President's Award for Exceptional Service. In addition to being elected as a House of Delegates member, he has served on numerous committees of the Louisiana Bar, including the Ethics 2000 Committee, the Advisory Reading Committee for the LSBA Handbook on Prc fessional Responsibility, the Practice Assistance and Improvement Committee as an Ethics School Instructor, the Mentoring and Internship Committee, the Special Committee on MCLE for New Admittees, the Public Access & Consumer Protection Committee, the Rules of Professional Conduct Committee, as Chair of the Multi- Jurisdictional Practice Committee, and as Chair of the Ethics Advisory Service Committee. He has been an Adjunct Professor of Business Law in the School of Eusiness at Centenary College since 1998. He has been a frequent speaker at seminars on a variety of topics including Professional Ethics, Evidence, Expert Testimony, Insurance Law, Trial Techniques, Busiress Litigation, and Troubled Financial Institutions. Mr. Shea is named The Best Lawyers in America® in 2009 and 2010 for commercial litigation, energy law, mass tort litigation, and oil & gas law. Mr. Shea has been repeatedly recognized by Louisiana Super Lawyers for his work in class action/mass torts and energy & natural resources.
PROFESSOR GREG SMITH holds the Professional Ethics Professorship of Law at the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University. He did his undergraduate work at Yale, where he majored in Political Science and graduated with honors. He obtained his law degree from Brigham Young University, where he was an article editor for the BYU Law .Review, and was designated as a J. Reuben Clark Scholar. Following law school, Professor Smith served as a law clerk to Judge Monroe G. McKay of the United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. He practiced law for over 11 years in Phoenix, Arizona before joining
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the LSU law faculty in 1991. He teaches common law property, civil law property, land use planning, commercial paper, and legal profession. His recent published writings have dealt with judicial conduct, legal ethics, and property law - including a book entitled Louisiana Judicial Conduct (Birdfoot Delta Press 2006), and a book which he co-authored entitled Louisiana Lawyering (West Group 2007). Professor Smith contributes to the comprehensive, 15-volume treatise, Thompson on Real Property (Michie 2007), with the chapters on "Public Housing" and the "Rights and Duties of Landlords and Tenants."
ROBERT L. THERIOT is a Shareholder in the law firm of Liskow & Lewis. He is a founding member of the firm's Houston office. Mr. Theriot heads the Houston office Litigation Team, and practices in the areas of energy and business litigation and energy transactions. He handles matters before state and federal courts in Texas and Louisiana, and is also experienced in arbitration and alternative dispute resolution. His litigation experience includes a wide range of oil and gas, upstream, midstream, and downstream disputes, and various general commercial disputes. Because of his experience in these areas, he is often called upon by clients for advice and counsel in various areas of energy law transactions and business practices. He is an honors graduate of the University of Southwestern Louisiana, with a Bachelor of Science. He went on to graduate from Tulane University Law School, summa cum laude, in 1986. Mr. Theriot was Editor-in Chief of Tulane Law Review, and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.
J. LANIER YEATES is resident in the Houston office of Gordon Arata McCollum Duplantis & Eagan, LLC and is a Member of the firm. Licensed to practice law in both Texas and Louisiana, Mr. Yeates has resided in Houston since completing his studies at Louisiana State University Law School in 1981. His practice includes representation of producers and other participants in the energy industry. He currently teaches the law school course, "Essentials of Oil and Gas Shale Development," as a member of the Adjunct Faculty of the University of Houston Law Center. He began teaching law school in the Fall semester of 1990 when he taught Louisiana Oil and Gas Law, as an adjunct faculty member of the University of Houston Law Center. Since 1983, Mr. Yeates has served as both a member of the Advisory Council of the Louisiana Mineral Law Institute and its Chairman for multiple terms. He served as Vice-Chairman of several committees of the American Bar Association, including the Energy Policy Committee and the Oil & Natural Gas Exploration and Production Committee. He served on the Technical Subcommittee of the AAPL-OCS Committee's Deepwater Offshore Operating Agreement Model Form Subcommittee, which developed a deepwater offshore operating agreement that was adopted in
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2000 by the AAPL as a model form. Mr. Yeates has published numerous articles and other publications and has been a frequent speaker on subjects of importance to the energy industry. In 2004, he published his first novel, Bay of One Hundred Fires. Appointed for two terms by Governor George W. Bush, Mr. Yeates served from 1998-2001, as Vice Chairman of the Spindletop Centennial Celebration Commission and that planned and celebrated the 10 0'h anniversary of the discovery of the Lucas Gusher n the Spindletop Field. He currently serves as a member of the Board cf Directors of the LSU Foundation, having served as its Chairman during 2007-2008. He currently serves as Chairman of Campanile Charities, Inc. He is a past President of the LSU Law Alumni Association. Among his professional memberships are the United States Supreme Couri Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, and the College of the State Bar of Texas, the Pro-Bono College of the State Bar of Texas, the Louisiana State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Houston Bar Association, and the American Law Institute. He was graduated in December of 1977, with a B.S. from LSU, and, in 1981, from LSU Law School where he was Order df the Coif and served as Associate Editor of the Louisiana Law Review. His fraternities include Phi Ka:?pa Phi, Delta Sigma Pi, and Sigma Chi. ADAM B. ZUCKERMAN is a Shareholder in the New Orleans law office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC. Mr. Zuckerman represents clients in a wide variety of complex commercial litigation matters, including contract and business tort litigation, oil and gas litigation, environmental litigation arising out of oil and gas exploration and production activities, natural gas pipeline expropriation proceedings, and construction litigation. He also has extensive experience defending against personal injury lawsuits and toxic tort class action and mass action lawsuits. In addition to commercial litigation, Mr. Zuckerman represents creditors in bankruptcy and other collection proceedings, and represents clients throughout the federal and state appellate process. He graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor of Science degree. He graduated from Loyola University School of Law in 1998 and was Editor-in-Chief of Loyola Law Review. He served as Eankruptcy Law Clerk to the United States Trustee for the Eastern District of Louisiana, and also served as Judicial Law Clerk to Chief Justice Pascal F. Calogero of the Louisiana Supreme Court.
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