Stephen F. Gates, IEL Advisory Board Chair

Steve Gates emphasizes corporate and dispute resolution matters as special counsel in Mayer Brown's Houston office. With nearly 30 years of executive and in‐house counsel experience with multinational energy and chemical companies, he is well versed in industry legal, compliance, regulatory and transactional matters. His corporate experience includes acquisition and financing transactions, corporate governance and strategic legal planning. He also has substantial litigation management experience and has strong credentials in alternative dispute resolution and international arbitration.

Bert Cornelison, Vice Chair

Bert Cornelison is Executive Vice President and General Counsel with responsibility for advising Halliburton's Chief Executive Officer and board on legal matters. He is a member of Halliburton's Executive Committee.

Mr. Cornelison has also served as Vice President and Associate General Counsel, heading the intellectual property, environmental and litigation practice groups. Before coming to Halliburton, he was staff vice president and associate general counsel of Dresser Industries, as well as deputy general counsel of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) and vice president and general counsel for Ogden Financial Services. In addition, Mr. Cornelison spent 10 years with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Howrey & Simon, where he was a partner.

Mr. Cornelison earned a juris doctorate from the University of California at Davis in 1974, and has a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Santa Clara in California.

Bert Cornelison

Wendy Daboval, Vice Chair

Wendy F. Daboval is General Counsel and Vice President, Land of Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company, where she is responsible for the overall provision and management of legal and land services to Chevron’s North American upstream operations.

A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Daboval received her law degree from Loyola University New Orleans.  After a clerkship with the United States District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, she joined the Legal Department of Texaco Inc. in New Orleans. 

Upon Texaco’s merger with Chevron in 2001, Daboval was appointed Assistant General Counsel for ChevronTexaco North America Upstream’s Permian Business Unit, and in 2004, Managing Counsel for Chevron North America Exploration and Production Company’s Headquarters law unit. Daboval was named to her present position in July 2006. 

Sylvia J. Kerrigan, Vice Chair

Sylvia J. Kerrigan is vice president, general counsel and secretary of Marathon Oil Corporation. She joined Marathon in 1995 and was named vice president and general counsel in September 2009, and secretary in November 2009. She is located in Marathon’s corporate office in Houston, Texas.

Prior to her most recent appointments, Ms. Kerrigan served as assistant general counsel for Litigation, Human Resources and Environmental Law. Ms. Kerrigan holds a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy, political economy and English from Southwestern University and a doctor of jurisprudence degree from the University of Texas.

Sylvia J. Kerrigan

Philip R. Weems, 2011 Oil & Gas Law Conference Co-Chair

Philip Weems is co-head of King & Spalding’s Global Energy Practice.  Mr. Weems, who was based in Dubai from 2007-2010, now splits his time between the firm’s offices in Houston, Texas and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Mr. Weems specializes in global energy and infrastructure transactions with a concentration on LNG / gas matters, upstream transactions and energy maritime issues.

Mr. Weems served as President of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) from 2003-2004, and prior to being President served as Secretary and a member of the Board of Directors from 1999-2005.  He was Chairman of the 2002 AIPN International Joint Operating Agreement Revision Committee responsible for the second revision of the form.

He is ranked by Chambers Global, Chambers USA, The Legal 500, The International Who's Who of Oil & Gas Lawyers,  Euromoney’s Guide to the World's Leading Lawyers,  and Best Lawyers in America.

Rogelio López-Velarde, International Practice Committee Chair

Rogelio López-Velarde is an Attorney and Counselor-at-Law, admitted in Mexico in 1988, and in the State of New York in 1991.  Mr. López-Velarde received his J.D. Degree, summa cum laude, from the Universidad Iberoamericana Law School in 1988, and earned his LL.M. degree from University of Houston Law Center in 1989.

Mr. López-Velarde held various positions at Pemex during 1988-1993, including that of Financial Advisor to the Finance Department, In-House Counsel in Houston, Texas, In-House Counsel in New York.

Mr. López-Velarde is the former Chairman of the Energy Committee of the Mexican Bar Association, and the former President for the Latin America Chapter of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN). Currently he is the Chairman the International Practice Committee of the U.S. Institute for Energy Law, 2010 – 2012.

Mr. López-Velarde is a member of the Mexican Bar Association, the American Bar Association, among other associations. He is the Mexican representative of the Editorial Board of the Oil & Gas Law and Taxation Review, the Oil & Gas Committee of the International Bar Association.

Mr. López-Velarde is considered by Euromoney, Who is Who and Latin Lawyer the top energy lawyer in Mexico, and one of the top energy lawyers in the world.

Rogelio López-Velarde

Charlene A. Ripley, Oil & Gas Practice Committee Chair

Charlene A. Ripley is Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for LINN Energy, LLC. Prior to joining LINN in 2007, she served as Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation. She joined Norcen Energy Resources Limited, a predecessor to Anadarko Canada Corporation, in 1997 and assumed the role of Chief Legal Officer for Anadarko Petroleum Corporation in 2003. She served as counsel for Amoco Canada Petroleum Company Ltd. from 1990 to 1997.

Ms. Ripley holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Alberta and a law degree from Dalhousie University. She is a member of the Texas State Bar, Canadian Bar Association, Houston Business Partnership Executive Women’s Partnership, United Way of Greater Houston Women’s Initiative, and Women’s Energy Network. She serves on the board of the Texas General Counsel Forum and on several non-profit advisory boards including the Impact Youth Development Center, Girls Inc. and the American Heart Association.

Jay G. Martin, Oilfield Services Practice Committee Chair

Jay G. Martin is the Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer and the Senior Deputy General Counsel for Baker Hughes Incorporated ("BHI"). Prior to joining BHI, Mr. Martin was a Shareholder at Winstead Sechrest & Minick P.C., a Partner at Phelps Dunbar and Andrews & Kurth, and the Assistant General Counsel of Mobil Oil Corporation’s Worldwide Exploration and Production Division in Fairfax, Virginia. Mr. Martin has also served as General Counsel of Mobil Natural Gas, Inc. in Houston, Texas. Mr. Martin holds JD, MPA and BBA degrees from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Jay G. Martin

Yao Apasu, Power & Alternative Energy Practice Committee Chair

Dr. Yao Apasu is Managing Counsel (Gas Commercialization/Chevron Natural Gas) at Chevron Global Upstream and Gas Law. He represents Chevron Global Gas, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc., in a variety of complex international acquisitions, asset dispositions, gas commercialization projects, power project development, project financing transactions, commodities trading, and other institutional investments.

Prior to Chevron, Yao was Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Enron Global Assets & Services Inc., and was responsible for managing the legal risks associated with certain project development opportunities in the Asia-Pacific Basin, Africa and the Caribbean. He was also in private practice in the New York office of Skadden, Arps as a Senior Associate in the Banking & Institutional Investments group, where he represented several Wall Street investment banks and Fortune 500 businesses in a variety of domestic and international acquisitions, asset dispositions, and structured finance and other financing transactions.

Jennifer (Day) Hardin, Young Energy Professionals Practice Committee Chair

Jennifer D. Hardin is Senior Counsel - Corporate Exploration and Production for ConocoPhillips. In this role, she is responsible for providing transactional support for the upstream international business unit, and legal advice to all business units on US export controls and economic sanctions laws and regulations. From 2000 to 2009, prior to joining ConocoPhillips, Ms. Hardin served in various capacities for Devon Energy Corporation, most recently as Senior Attorney - International Division. Ms. Hardin holds a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Texas A&M University, and was awarded a juris doctor degree, with honors, from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Jennifer D. Hardin

Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. increased their membership to the Sustaining level. Brian Bradshaw (Houston), Mike Irvin (Houston), Poe Leggette (Denver) and Richard Wilson (Houston) join Dan McClure, Mark Wasem and William Wood as advisory board members.

Sustaining member Covington & Burling LLP added Peter Flanagan (Washington, D.C.) as an advisory board member.

Brad Keithley

New Sponsoring members are CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (Jason Ryan, Assistant General Counsel, Houston)(not pictured), Dickstein Shaprio LLP (Larry Eisenstat, Energy Practice Leader, Washington, D.C.), El Paso Corporation (Pat Martin, Associate General Counsel, Houston)(not pictured) and Perkins Coie LLP (Bradford Keithley, Anchorage).

New Academic members are Thomas Bookwalter (Santa Fe), Julian Cardenas Garcia (Associate Research Fellow, CREDIMI, Universite de Bourgogne, Paris) and Dennis Otiotio (Special Adviser on Legal Matters, Government of Bayelsa State of Nigeria).

A new Non-Profit member is the William E. Scott Foundation (Raymond B. Kelly, III, Ft. Worth).