Oil & Gas Law Short Course

The Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, the Institute for Energy Law, and the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation are co-sponsoring the 34th Annual Oil and Gas Law Short Course in Houston, Texas on October 17-21, 2016. This one-week intensive program, developed in 1983 by a group of practicing attorneys, landmen, and experienced law professors, is continually reviewed and updated to provide registrants with the fundamentals of, and practical training in, important areas of oil and gas law in the United States, including leasing, contracting, conveyancing, regulation, and practice. This course focuses primarily on principles of U.S. laws and state regulations. For in-depth treatment of oil and gas issues on U.S. federal lands or international oil and gas topics, see our Upcoming Courses.

The course will be presented by leading law professors and oil and gas practitioners through lectures, drafting exercises, and workshops. Topics covered include exploration and production operations; ownership, capture, and correlative rights; conservation regulation; oil and gas leases – function and classification, defining what is granted, and duration of the grant; implied covenants; royalties; division orders; drilling contracts; pooling and unitization; local regulation; split estates; environmental regulations; common interests; joint operating agreements; farmout agreements; marketing; ethical issues; and taxation.

This course is essential for attorneys, landmen, paralegals, government employees, and others who are relatively inexperienced in the legal and/or land problems of the oil and gas industry. More experienced individuals often attend this course for a comprehensive review and update. The course provides 32.5 hours of continuing education credit, including 2.25 hours of ethics.

Enrollment is limited, and paid registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. The registration fee includes substantial course materials, coffee breaks, and a hosted reception. Please note that course materials cannot be purchased separately.

For planning purposes, the co-sponsors alternate this course between Texas and Colorado. Next year’s Oil and Gas Law Short Course, along with a companion course on Federal Oil and Gas Leasing (offered biennially), is scheduled for October 16–20, 2017 in Colorado.

Conference Co-Sponsors

                                                                       

Continuing Education Credit

Approximately 32.5 hours of instruction, including 2.25 hours of ethics. CLE, AAPL, and other credits are available.

Location

The Doubletree by Hilton Houston Downtown

400 Dallas Street
Houston, Texas 77002

The Doubletree by Hilton Houston has blocked rooms for this course until October 3 at the rate of $197 single/double per night.  A limited number of government rate rooms also are available.  Ask for the special rates for Oil and Gas Law registrants.  For reservations, contact the Doubletree at:

Toll Free +1 800-222-8733  |  Direct +1 713-759-0202  |  Online  |  Online Government Rate (government employees only)

Difficulty making room reservations? Contact us at info@rmmlf.org.

Schedule

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Monday Morning

Registration

Introductions and Opening Remarks

  1. MONIKA U. EHRMAN

    Professor of Law; Faculty Director of the Oil & Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Center (ONE C) University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman, OK

Exploration and Production Operations

  • Overview of reservoir mechanics and petroleum geology
  • Petroleum exploration, production, completions, and development
  • Unconventional (shale) production
  1. MONIKA U. EHRMAN

    Professor of Law; Faculty Director of the Oil & Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Center (ONE C) University of Oklahoma College of Law, Norman, OK

Ownership, Rule of Capture, and Correlative Rights

  • Classification of oil and gas minerals and production on a state basis
  • Discussion of non-liability for legal production
  • Overview of multiple owners sharing a common resource

Break

  1. KRISTEN VAN DE BIEZENBOS

    University of Calgary Faculty of Law, Calgary, AB

Split Estates - The Surface Use Issues

  • Dominant and surface estates
  • Typical surface operations that occur during exploration and production

Lunch - On Your Own

Monday Afternoon

  1. KEITH B. HALL

    Director, Mineral Law Institute; Campanile Charities Professor of Energy Law Louisiana State University, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Baton Rouge, LA

Common Interests Created in Oil & Gas

  • Characteristics of oil and gas interests
  • How interests are created
  • Using co-owned interests
  1. JACQUELINE L. WEAVER

    A.A. White Professor of Law Emeritus University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas

The Oil & Gas Lease: Function and Classification

  • Nature of the lease interest
  • Covenants versus conditions
  • The habendum clause: production in paying quantities
  • Delay rental option

Break

  1. JACQUELINE L. WEAVER

    A.A. White Professor of Law Emeritus University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Texas

The Oil & Gas Lease: Defining the Duration

  • Typical savings clauses
  • Recent examples from newer shale states
  • Repudiation and force majeure

Hosted Reception

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Tuesday Morning

  1. CHRISTOPHER S. KULANDER

    Professor of Law South Texas College of Law, Houston, TX

The Oil & Gas Lease: Defining the Royalty Obligation

  • History and rationale
  • Types of royalty
  • Market value vs. proceeds valuation
  • Covenant to market — time and value legs

Break

  1. CHRISTOPHER S. KULANDER

    Professor of Law South Texas College of Law, Houston, TX

The Royalty Obligation, Division Orders, and Check Stub Statutes

  • Deductions from royalty
  • Purpose and content of division orders
  • Common features of check stub statutes

Lunch - On Your Own

Tuesday Afternoon

  1. KEITH B. HALL

    Director, Mineral Law Institute; Campanile Charities Professor of Energy Law Louisiana State University, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Baton Rouge, LA

The Oil & Gas Lease: Implied Covenants

  • The rationale for recognizing implied covenants
  • The most common implied covenants
  • Negating implied covenants with express lease terms
  • Remedies available for successful claimants
  1. ALEX RITCHIE

    Executive Director Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, Westminster, CO

Environmental Regulation of the Oil and Gas Industry

  • Summary of major federal environmental laws and regulations
  • Application of environmental laws and regulations to oil and gas due diligence, drilling, and operations
  • Discussion of current environmental developments and pending proposals

Break

  1. PATRICK H. MARTIN

    Campanile Professor of Law Emeritus Louisiana State University Law Center, Baton Rouge, LA

Conservation Regulation

  • State regulation of drilling and production practices
  • Compulsory pooling and unitization
  • State agency administrative proceedings
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Wednesday Morning

  1. BRUCE M. KRAMER

    Of Counsel Keystone, Colorado; McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore, Houston, Texas

Pooling & Unitization

  • Basic definitions - pooling & unitization distinguished
  • How voluntary pooling is accomplished, pooling agreements, leasehold pooling clauses, and allocation well agreements
  • Unit agreements and unit operating agreements in voluntary unitization
  • Key provisions and allocation of production in voluntary unitization

Break

  1. BRUCE M. KRAMER

    Of Counsel Keystone, Colorado; McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore, Houston, Texas

Local Regulation of Oil & Gas Operations

  • Creature theory and the relationship between state and sub-state units
  • Home rule - some autonomy for sub-state units
  • Express preemption
  • Implied preemption by occupation of the field
  • Implied preemption by conflict
  • Legislative supremacy and recent state legislative developments

Lunch - On Your Own

Wednesday Afternoon

  1. Owen L. Anderson

    Peofessor of Law University of Texas School of Law, Austin, TX

Drilling Contracts

  • Types of services agreements and manner of payment
  • Macondo contractual risk allocation
  • Allocating risk of loss through contract and insurance

Break

  1. JUDITH M. MATLOCK

    Partner Davis, Graham & Stubbs LLP, Denver, CO

Marketing Agreements

  • Crude oil transportation, refining, measurement, quality, pricing, transportation regulation, contracts
  • Natural gas gathering, compression, processing, measurement, quality, pricing, transportation regulation, contracts
  • Managing price volatility through financial transactions
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Thursday Morning

  1. LAURA H. BURNEY

    Professor of Law St. Mary’s University School of Law, San Antonio, TX

Oil, Gas, and Mineral Conveyances: The Perennial Problems and Lessons for Drafting

  • Rules of deed interpretation v. reformation
  • Types and role of title opinions
  • Perennial issues for interpreting and drafting: Duhig rule, fractions, “other minerals”

Break

  1. PHILLIP D. BARBER

    Attorney Attorney-at-Law, Denver, CO

Farmout and Joint Operating Agreements

  • Description of farmout agreements and their origins
  • Typical situations where farmout agreements are used
  • Tax rulings that encourage farmout agreements
  • Standard provisions in farmout agreements
  • Relationship of farmouts and JOAs

Lunch - On Your Own

Thursday Afternoon

  1. PHILLIP D. BARBER

    Attorney Attorney-at-Law, Denver, CO

Farmout and Joint Operating Agreements (continued)

  • Issues that arise when there is exploration and development among mineral owners and lessees who do not have a JOA, including potential liabilities for joint operations
  • Role of forced pooling statutes in joint operations
  • Analysis of model form operating agreements for vertical and horizontal well operations
  • Common areas of dispute in joint operations and how the JOA addresses them

Break

  1. JOHN S. DZIENKOWSKI

    John F. Sutton, Jr. Chair in Lawyering and the Legal Process University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas
  2. ROBERT J. PERONI

    Fondren Foundation Centennial Chair for Faculty Excellence and Professor of Law University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas

Ethical Issues in Oil & Gas Law Practice

  • Typical ethical dilemmas encountered by oil and gas attorneys
  • Examination of core values of confidentiality, loyalty, competent and diligent representation, and obligations to the legal system
  • Practicing transactional law across state lines
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Friday Morning

  1. JOHN S. DZIENKOWSKI

    John F. Sutton, Jr. Chair in Lawyering and the Legal Process University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas
  2. ROBERT J. PERONI

    Fondren Foundation Centennial Chair for Faculty Excellence and Professor of Law University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas

Fundamentals of Oil and Gas Taxation

  • Basic federal income tax preferences/tax subsidies given to the oil and gas industry
  • Federal income tax consequences of leasing, farmouts, exploration, drilling and development, and production
  • Overview of the federal income tax consequences of disposing of oil and gas properties, including the recapture of tax benefits

Break

Fundamentals of Oil and Gas Taxation (continued)

Adjournment

Register now

* All fields are required unless otherwise stated

General Information

Room Reservations: The Doubletree by Hilton Houston Downtown, 400 Dallas Street, Houston, Texas 77002 has blocked rooms for this course until October 3 at the rate of $197 single/double per night.  A limited number of government rate rooms also are available.  Ask for the special rates for Oil and Gas Law registrants. Questions or problems: email info@rmmlf.org

Car Rental: Hertz is offering special discounts by referencing Meeting CV#03NJ0011 and Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation. Make reservations at www.hertz.com or call 800-654-2240 (U.S.); 800-263-0600 (Canada); or 405-749-4434 (International).

Registration Fees: Include course materials, refreshments, and hosted functions as listed in this brochure. These fees do not include hotel costs or transportation. Registrations will be accepted only when accompanied by a check, money order, government purchase order or training form, credit card information, or wiring informa­tion. No registrations can be processed without payment.

Registration Cancellations: Refunds, less a $50 administrative fee, will be given for cancellations received by 3:00pm on Friday, September 30, 2016. No refunds will be given thereafter, although substitution of attendees may be made by contacting RMMLF. A written request must follow a telephone cancellation. Registrants not entitled to a refund will receive a set of the course materials. For questions on refunds, complaints, and/or program cancellations, please contact the Foundation at 303-321-8100.

Course Materials: The classroom presentations will be supplemented by extensive written materials that will be distributed at the start of the program.

CLE Credit: This course consists of approximately 32.5 hours of continuing education, including 2.25 hours of ethics. You must let the Foundation know, at least 30 days in advance of the conference, the states or organizations for which you will need credit (see registration form). Credit hours for states will vary and are subject to each state’s approval and credit rounding rules. Foundation conferences are typically accredited by all mandatory CLE states and Canadian provinces, the AAPL, NADOA and NALTA, and other professional organizations. Attorneys from certain states may be required to pay an additional fee. The Foundation is a State Bar of California MCLE-approved provider.

CPE Credit: RMMLF is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing profes­sional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website: www.learningmarket.org. There are no prerequisites and no advance preparation is required to attend this course. The delivery method is Group–Live, and up to 40 CPE credits are available, including 2 ethics credits. The program level is “overview.”

Recording: Audio and video recording, streaming, or other types of live or stored dissemination are not permitted without express authorization from the Foundation.

Special Needs: If you have special needs addressed by the ADA, please notify us at least two weeks before the program.

Speakers & committee

Program Chair

OWEN L. ANDERSON began teaching full time at the University of Texas School of Law in January 2016, serving as a Professor at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Center for Energy, Law & Business, where he has taught as a part-time secondee since 2008. He is the Eugene Kuntz Chair Emeritus in Law in Oil, Gas & Natural Resources and the George Lynn Cross Research Professor Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma. He continues to regularly teach at the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney. Professor Anderson has lectured at numerous other universities and venues on six continents and throughout the United States. He has authored over 100 articles. He is a co-author of International Petroleum Transactions, Hemingway Oil and Gas Law and Taxation, Cases and Materials on Oil & Gas Law, and A Student’s Guide to Estates in Land and Future Interests. He a co-author of the supplements to Kuntz on Oil and Gas Law, and editor in chief of the Texas Title Standards. He serves on the Academic Advisory Board of the Institute for Energy Law, Faculty Adviser to the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas and Energy Law, the Editorial Advisory Board of the Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Law Journal (ONE J), and on the Executive Committee of the Journal of World Energy Law and Business. He is a member of the Texas, Oklahoma, and North Dakota bars; a member of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, where he serves as form and style editor of AIPN Model Contracts; a life member of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws; a member of the American Law Institute; an honorary trustee of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation; and a trustee of the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation. He is an arbitrator and consultant on oil and gas law and policy.

Speakers

PHILLIP D. BARBER practices law in Denver, Colorado. He was born in Wyoming and grew up in Colorado. He graduated from the Pueblo public schools, from Dartmouth College in 1975 (magna cum laude, with high distinction), and received his J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1979. His practice has focused on oil and gas law and natural resources and commercial litigation. Mr. Barber represents a variety of clients in the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production companies, parties who own surface, mineral or overriding royalty interests, and municipalities along Colorado's Front Range. He is the editor/author of “Oil & Gas Practice in Colorado” for the Colorado Methods of Practice, and is a contributing author to the Federal Law of Oil and Gas Leasing. He has presented papers at several Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Annual Institutes and speaks annually at the Short Course on Oil and Gas Law. Mr. Barber also volunteers with a number of non-profit groups, and provides pro bono representation to people seeking asylum in this country.

LAURA H. BURNEY is on the faculty at St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. She has written extensively on oil and gas law issues, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and courses for attorneys and other professionals in the industry.  She has served as an advocate, arbitrator, and mediator in oil and gas disputes, and as a consulting or testifying expert in cases in several states. Until 2004, Ms. Burney was the Albert and Helen Herrmann Professor of Natural Resources Law at St. Mary’s University School of Law, where she began teaching in 1985.  After working in private practice for six years, she returned to the faculty of St. Mary’s in 2010, teaching property law courses, including oil and gas law, and serving as faculty adviser to the law students’ Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Law Association.  In addition to teaching, Ms. Burney serves on the State Bar of Texas’ Pattern Jury Charge Committee for oil and gas disputes and continues to practice and work as a mediator and arbitrator.

JOHN S. DZIENKOWSKI is the John F. Sutton, Jr. Chair in Lawyering and the Legal Process and a Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas. John is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Business Administration and a high honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. While in law school, John served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Texas Law Review and received the honors of a member in the UT Chancellors and the Order of the Coif. He served as a judicial law clerk for Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Joseph Sneed (1983-84) and for District of Massachusetts Judge Robert Keeton (1984-85). John began his teaching career at Tulane Law School in New Orleans and joined the Texas faculty in 1988. He has been a visiting professor at a number of law schools around the country. John teaches and writes in the areas of professional responsibility of lawyers, real property, international energy transactions, and oil and gas taxation. He also was the recipient of the Texas Exes Faculty Teaching Award at the Law School in 2005. John is a four-term member of the drafting committee of the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination. John has authored and edited numerous books and articles on a variety of legal ethics and natural resource topics. John is the long-time co-chair (with Bob Peroni) of the bi-annual Parker Fielder Oil and Gas Taxation Conference, co-sponsored by the University of Texas School of Law and the Internal Revenue Service.

MONIKA U. EHRMAN is Professor of Law and Faculty Director of the Oil & Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Center (ONE C) at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where she leads the energy program. Her scholarly interests are in the area of oil and gas real property issues, the intersection between law and petroleum technology, and energy policy. Her courses include Oil & Gas Law, International Petroleum Transactions, Energy Negotiations, Property, and Oil & Gas Contracts. She currently teaches in the J.D. and graduate programs at OU Law and in the Executive Energy Management Program at the OU Price College of Business. Prior to teaching, she served as general counsel of a privately held oil and gas company in Dallas; senior counsel with Pioneer Natural Resources; and associate attorney at Locke Lord LLP. Before law school, Professor Ehrman worked as a petroleum engineer in the upstream, midstream, and pipeline sectors of the energy industry. In addition to her technical experience, she also worked as an analyst in the areas of commodity risk management and energy trading.  She is a member of the Board of Directors and a Trustee for the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and a Trustee for the Energy & Mineral Law Foundation. She is the Vice President Education for the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators, where she was also the 2018 Professor in Residence. Professor Ehrman is the faculty advisor to the Oil and Gas, Natural Resources, and Energy Journal (ONE J). She received her B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta; J.D. from SMU Dedman School of Law; and Master’s in Law from Yale Law School. During law school, she was Research Assistant to Professor John Lowe at SMU and to the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy.

KEITH B. HALL is Director of the Mineral Law Institute and the Campanile Charities Professor of Energy Law at Louisiana State University, where he teaches Mineral Rights, Civil Law Property, International Petroleum Transactions, and Energy Law & Regulation. His publications have focused on oil and gas leases, pooling and unitization, hydraulic fracturing, induced seismicity, and the management of produced water. He is co-author of a national casebook on oil and gas law and also is co-author of a book on the legal issues relating to hydraulic fracturing. He also is a contributing co-author to a forthcoming new edition of a book on international petroleum transactions. In addition to teaching at LSU, Professor Hall has taught energy law classes as a visiting professor at Baku State University in Azerbaijan, as a visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and as an adjunct professor at Loyola School of Law. Before joining the LSU faculty, he practiced law at a major firm in New Orleans for sixteen years, and before that he worked for eight years as a chemical engineer in the petrochemical industry.

BRUCE M. KRAMER received his B.A. in International Relations from UCLA in 1968, his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law in 1972 and an LL.M. in Environmental and Natural Resources Law from the University of Illinois College of Law in 1975. From 1974 through his retirement at the end of 2006 he taught at the Texas Tech University School of Law. He is now the Maddox Professor of Law Emeritus. From 2007 through the present he is of counsel to the Texas-based law firm of McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore. He has taught at Colorado University School of Law since 2008 and is currently a Thomson Visiting Professor of Law. He is the co-author of several treatises including The Law of Pooling and Unitization, Williams & Meyers Oil and Gas Law (since 1996), Cases and Materials on Oil and Gas Law and International Petroleum Transactions. He is also the author of numerous law review articles in the field of oil and gas law. His works have been cited by numerous state and federal courts over the past 25 years. He is an honorary trustee of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, a member of the Executive Committee of the Institute for Energy Law of the Center for American and International Law, and a trustee to the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation.

CHRISTOPHER KULANDER is a professor of law at South Texas College of Law–Houston and Director of the school’s Harry L. Reed Oil and Gas Law Institute. At South Texas, he teaches courses covering oil & gas, energy, and property law. He received his J.D. from the University of Oklahoma, where he was managing editor for the Oklahoma Bar Mineral Law Newsletter, note editor and assisting managing editor for the American Indian Law Review, and research assistant for Owen L. Anderson, Eugene Kuntz Chair of Oil and Gas Law. Before teaching, Professor Kulander practiced full-time for four years in the Houston office of Haynes and Boone LLP within the Energy Practice Group, focusing on energy lending, finance, and bankruptcy. Prior to that, he practiced for two years with Cotton & Bledsoe in Midland, Texas, focusing on oil and gas title and leasing. Before law school, he received his B.S. and M.S. in geology from Wright State in Dayton, Ohio, and his Ph.D. in geophysics (petroleum seismology) from Texas A&M, after which he worked as a geophysicist for the U.S. Geological Survey. He has written and published in the fields of oil and gas law, land use control, American Indian law as well as in geology and petroleum seismology.

PATRICK H. MARTIN is Campanile Professor of Mineral Law, Emeritus, at Louisiana State University Law Center. Professor Martin taught at the LSU Law Center from 1977 to 2011, including courses in Jurisprudence, Contracts, and Mineral Law. From 1982 to 1984, he served as the Commissioner of Conservation for the State of Louisiana. Professor Martin holds the B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Louisiana State University and the J. D. degree from the Duke University Law School. His publications include Pooling and Unitization (with B. Kramer) and Williams & Meyers Oil and Gas Law (update and revision author with B. Kramer) and three casebooks, Jurisprudence: Text and Readings on the Philosophy of Law (with Christie), Oil and Gas Cases and Materials (with Kramer, Hall & Ritchie) and Economic Regulation: Energy, Transportation and Utilities (with Pierce and Allison, 1980) as well as numerous articles on oil and gas law, energy regulation, and early modern English history. McFarland & Company, Inc. published his most recent book, Elizabethan Espionage: Plotters and Spies in the Struggle Between Catholicism and Crown, in 2015. Professor Martin has served as an arbitrator, mediator, and consultant in the oil and gas industry.

JUDITH M. MATLOCK is a partner in the Energy Group of the Denver law firm of Davis, Graham & Stubbs LLP. For thirty-five years she has represented companies in the oil and gas industry.  Her practice has emphasized the post-production side of the business. She is involved in all aspects of the gathering, transportation, processing, fractionation, and marketing of natural gas, liquids, and crude oil and representing producers in connection with the calculation, payment, and reporting of royalties and production taxes. Her practice also includes public utility law involving both gas and electric utilities.  She received her undergraduate degree (B.A. 1979) from the University of Colorado at Denver and her law degree (J.D. 1982) from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Order of the Coif, and the Denver, Colorado, and American Bar Associations. She has been named in The Best Lawyers in America® (oil and gas) since 1995. She is an active participant in the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and has served on the Executive Committee, as a trustee, and co-chair of the Special Institutes Committee. She has also been the program chair for several RMMLF special institutes and short courses, was the program chair for the 2010 Annual Institute, and is a frequent lecturer and writer on energy topics.  She teaches the oil and gas marketing section of the Foundation’s Oil and Gas Law Short Courses. She is a frequent lecturer and writer on energy topics including two annual institute papers and over a dozen special institute papers for the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, and numerous other papers for various oil and gas associations.

ROBERT J. PERONI is the Fondren Foundation Centennial Chair for Faculty Excellence and a Professor of Law at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, Texas.  His research and teaching interests are in the areas of federal taxation (including natural resource taxation and international taxation), law and economics, and professional responsibility and legal ethics.  He is a frequent speaker at academic conferences and continuing legal education programs throughout the country.  Bob is the recipient of awards for outstanding law school teaching at Tulane, George Washington University, and the University of Texas.  He has written extensively, having authored or co-authored numerous articles and books, including, with Anderson, Dzienkowski, Lowe, Pierce, and Smith, the most recent edition of Hemingway’s treatise on Oil and Gas Law and Taxation (published by West Academic Publishing in 2017).  He earned a BSC from DePaul University; a JD from Northwestern University; and an LLM (in Taxation) from New York University.  He has had numerous appointments at law schools throughout the country, and was a Professor-in-Residence, Internal Revenue Service, Office of Chief Counsel, Washington, D.C., 1985-86.  He is also the co-chair (with John Dzienkowski) of the bi-annual Parker Fielder Oil and Gas Taxation Conference, co-sponsored by the University of Texas School of Law and the Internal Revenue Service and is the long-time academic co-chair of the Annual Institute on Current Issues in International Taxation, co-sponsored by George Washington University Law School and the Internal Revenue Service.  Bob is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel.

ALEX RITCHIE is the Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Foundation. He comes to the Foundation from the University of New Mexico School of Law, where he held the Leon Karelitz Chair in Oil and Gas Law and taught oil and gas law, advanced oil and gas law, property law, natural resources law, energy law, and business associations.  Before joining the UNM law faculty, Alex was Senior Corporate Counsel for Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc., based in Denver.  Alex joined Suncor in 2009 after ten years in the Energy and Natural Resources and Corporate Transactions practice groups at Bryan Cave LLP (formerly Holme Roberts & Owen LLP).  In addition to numerous Foundation papers and law review articles, Alex is a co-author of the Tenth Edition of Cases and Materials: The Law of Oil and Gas (Foundation Press 2016) (with Martin, Kramer and Hall).  Over the course of his career, Alex has represented clients in oil and gas, mining, corporate, securities, commercial, mergers and acquisitions, and environmental matters.

KRISTEN VAN DE BIEZENBOS joined the faculty of The University of Calgary Faculty of Law & Haskayne School of Business as an Assistant Professor in 2017, formerly serving as an Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law.  She received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Tulane University Law School in 2010.  While in law school, she served as the Senior Notes and Comments Editor of the Tulane Law Review and as an intern for the Honorable Judge Lance Africk at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.  After attending law school, Professor van de Biezenbos had a mixed transactional and litigation practice in New Orleans.  Her practice focused on commercial litigation, oil & gas, maritime law, international law, and arbitration.  Prior to joining the law faculty at Oklahoma, she was an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University School of Law and served as a Westerfield Fellow at Loyola New Orleans College of Law.  She teaches and writes on energy law and policy, oil & gas, offshore resources, and international commercial law.  Her articles have been published in the Michigan Journal of Law Reform and the Fordham Law Review.

JACQUELINE L. WEAVER is Professor Emerita at the University of Houston Law Center, where she held the A.A. White Professor of Law chair until her retirement in 2017. Her teaching and research interests cover oil and gas law, energy law and policy, international petroleum, and environmental and natural resources law. She is the co-author of Smith & Weaver, Texas Law of Oil and Gas, a three-volume treatise; Energy, Economics and the Environment (a casebook on U.S. energy, including FERC regulation of pipelines); and several books on international petroleum transactions. She has lectured on topics in international oil and gas in Africa (Uganda, Namibia, and Luanda), Kazakhstan (as a Fulbright scholar), Lisbon, and Bangkok. She has written articles on offshore safety after the Macondo disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, energy markets, sustainable development in the international petroleum industry, comparative unitization laws, energy policy, and traditional oil and gas law topics. Professor Weaver holds a B.A. in Economics from Harvard University and a J.D. degree from the University of Houston.