72nd Annual Oil and Gas Law Conference

Overview

The 72nd edition of the Institute for Energy Law’s Annual Oil & Gas Law Conference will take place virtually from April 21-23, 2021. This outstanding program brings together legal leaders in the oil and gas industry for excellent educational programming and multiple social and networking opportunities with a diverse audience.

Conference Co-Chairs

Deans of Oil and Gas Practice Lecture

Reagan W. Simpson
Yetter Coleman LLP
Houston, Texas

Tuition

Early registration pricing is available through April 12, 2021.

• $395 - Non-Member Registration Fee (Regular Price: $425)
• $0.00 - IEL Advisory Board Member
• $315 - IEL Supporting or Sustaining Member Employee (Regular Price: $340)
• $315 - Individual Advisory Board Members who have a Non-Annual Conference Membership (Regular Price: $340)
• $315 - IEL Young Energy Professional Member (Regular Price: $340)
• $75 - Full-time Law Student (Regular Price: $75)
• $75 - Full-time Law Professor (Regular Price: $75)
• $100 - Materials Only - I will not be attending the conference.

Schedule and Faculty

Wednesday, April 21

8:50 a.m. (CDT)

Welcome and Overview

9:00 a.m. (CDT)

Keynote Presentation - Shaping America’s Energy Policy

• U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, West Virginia

9:35 a.m. (CDT)

BREAK

9:45 a.m. (CDT)

Recent Developments in Oil and Gas Law

This session will feature a review of important cases and other developments in oil and gas law over the last year.

• Keith B. Hall, Director of Mineral Law Institute and Campanile Charities Professor of Energy Law, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

10:45 a.m. (CDT)

BREAK

11:00 a.m. (CDT)

The Inside Perspective: Legal Issues and Needs of Industry Counsel

This panel of senior industry lawyers will address the concerns of general counsel in operating legal departments in the energy industry and provide advice and guidance regarding new and reliable legal strategies, and the professional challenges they face.

Moderator: Daniella D. Landers, Reed Smith LLP, Houston, Texas

Panelists:

• Meghan N. Eilers, Vice President – Legal Operations, Ovintiv, Houston, Texas
• Aurélien Hamelle, General Counsel, Total, Paris, France
• William E. Jordan, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, EQT Corporation, Houston, Texas

12:00 p.m. (CDT)

BREAK

1:30 p.m. (CDT)

ESG Considerations for the Energy Industry

Stakeholders at every level increasingly expect oil and gas companies to demonstrate a strong commitment to ESG through their business practices. Responsibility for drafting and updating dynamic ESG-related policies, as well as overseeing implementation and compliance of mandatory disclosure and voluntary reporting is a small, but important, facet of counsel’s role. This discussion offers some principles for good ESG practices from the legal and business perspectives.

Moderator: Stacey H. Mitchell, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, Washington, D.C.

Panelists:

• David S. Ferris, Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, Laredo Petroleum, Inc., Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Monica Karuturi, Senior Vice President & General Counsel, CenterPoint Energy, Houston, Texas
• Kevin Kwok, Vice President, MSCI ESG Research, New York, New York

2:30 p.m.

Break

4:00 p.m. (CDT)

Deans of Oil and Gas Practice Lecture

Every year, a distinguished legal practitioner or academic is selected to present the Deans of Oil and Gas Lecture at the Annual Oil & Gas Conference. A lawyer’s lecture for lawyers, the deans lecture is an opportunity for reflection and comment on a career in oil and gas law.

2021 Lecturer: Reagan W. Simpson, Yetter Coleman LLP, Houston, Texas

4:30 p.m. (CDT)

Social Event

Although we can’t get together in-person (always a big part of the Annual Conference), we can still visit together virtually. The social event will be conducted via Remo, which allows individuals to move around to different tables of individuals to visit with their friends, contacts and people they wish they knew.

5:30 p.m. (CDT)

Adjourn for Day

Thursday, April 22

Transactional Module

• Jonathan Ayre, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, Houston, Texas
• Paige Goodwin, Total American Services, Inc., Houston, Texas

8:40 a.m. (CDT)

Welcome and Overview

8:45 a.m. (CDT)

What’s Old is (Sometimes) New Again: Decommissioning and Repurposing of Aging Assets

This session will discuss possibilities for repurposing oil and gas assets for new energy projects, and the key associated considerations.

• Amanda G. Halter, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, Houston & Austin, Texas
• Alicia M. McKnight, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, San Francisco, CA and New York, NY

9:30 a.m. (CDT)

BREAK

9:35 a.m. (CDT)

Distressed Debt Exchanges

This session will analyze the recent proliferation of out-of-court restructurings of upstream company debt, where the market is, and where the market is going.

Moderator: Trevor Lavelle, Latham & Watkins LLP, Houston, Texas

• Steven Karpel, Managing Director, BlackRock, New York, New York
• B. J. Rosen, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, New York, New York
• Lucy Schlauch Stark, Holland & Hart LLP, Denver, Colorado

10:20 a.m. (CDT)

BREAK

10:35 a.m. (CDT)

Managing Antitrust Risk in Mergers and Joint Ventures in Transitioning Energy Markets

This session will consider how to manage antitrust considerations in transactions occurring in markets facing significant contraction or expansion in output. As the energy transition occurs, some market segments are left with the prospects of reduced output while others are seeing dramatic growth. Mergers or collaborations are frequent responses to try to match supply and demand in a particular geography, but antitrust considerations, if not addressed early, can pose significant hurdles to either reducing capacity to match reduced demand or sharing capacity in rapidly expanding markets. We will consider strategies to best position transactions in light of such concerns.

• James R. Dean Jr., Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, D.C.

11:20 a.m. (CDT)

BREAK

11:25 a.m. (CDT)

Applying Oil and Gas Skill Sets to Renewable Power Transactions

The session will take a comparative perspective addressing similarities and differences between oil and gas and renewables in three discreet practice areas with three different speakers. The three topics will be: (1) purchase and sale agreements, contrasting the sale of wind & solar projects (including tax equity considerations) with the sale of oil & gas assets; (2) construction agreements, discussing similarities and differences between these agreements as used for oil and gas and renewables projects; and (3) real property agreements, comparing oil and gas and renewables lease instruments. This high-level survey of cross-over skills will assist traditional energy practitioners in applying their skill sets to new energy matters.

• Jeffrey L. Allen, Wetsel, Carmichael, Allen & Lederle, L.L.P., Sweetwater, Texas
  
• Becky H. Diffen, Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, Austin, Texas
• Ingrid A. Myers, King & Spalding LLP, Houston, Texas

12:20 p.m. (CDT)

BREAK

Litigation Module

• Suzana Blades, ConocoPhillips, Houston, Texas
• Laranda Walker, Susman Godfrey, Houston, Texas

1:00 p.m. (CDT)

Climate Change Litigation Around the World

This session will provide an overview of the different climate change lawsuits being brought by government entities and environmental groups in different countries, including the U.S., Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and The Philippines. This session will also give practical advice to corporations on how to create an effective ESG policy that mitigates environmental risk.

Moderator: Erica Harris, Susman Godfrey L.L.P., Houston, Texas

Panelists:

• E. Joshua Rosenkranz, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, New York, New York
• Paul A. Davies, Latham & Watkins LLP, London, United Kingdom
• Andres R. Romero-Delmastro, Managing Counsel, Special Litigation, Chevron Corporation, San Ramon California

1:45 p.m. (CDT)

BREAK

1:50 p.m. (CDT)

Reasonable Prudent Operator – The Continuously Evolving Standard

As companies continue to adapt their business models as part of their energy transition efforts, oil & gas operators will require increasing flexibility in the way they develop their oil & gas assets. This session will discuss how courts in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Colorado will interpret the continuously evolving Reasonable Prudent Operator standard.

Moderator: Michelle Scheffler, Haynes and Boone, LLP, Houston, Texas

Panelists:

• Barry Barnett, Susman Godfrey L.L.P., Houston, Texas
• Terry D. Ragsdale, GableGotwals, Tulsa, Oklahoma
• Robert Sutphin, Jr., Holland & Hart LLP, Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Laney Vazquez, Supervising Counsel, Rockies Business Unit, Chevron, Denver, Colorado

2:50 p.m. (CDT)

BREAK

3:00 p.m. (CDT)

Energy Disputes on the Rise – Employment, IP and Antitrust

Energy transition will bring new litigation challenges as a result of additional technology investments, changes in the work force, and antitrust concerns arising from market consolidation. This session will discuss the types of disputes that are on the rise in the energy transition era.

Moderator: Prof. David E. Adelman, Harry Reasoner Regents Chair in Law, The University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas

Panelists:

• Susan Llewellyn Deniker, Steptoe & Johnson PLLC, Bridgeport, West Virginia
• Cristina Espinosa Rodriguez, Hogan Lovells, Houston, Texas
• Linda R. Stahl, Carter Arnett PLLC, Dallas, Texas

3:45 p.m. (CDT)

BREAK

3:50 p.m. (CDT)

Government Investigations and Securities Litigation – You Better Watch Out!

The Biden Administration’s focus on climate change and social justice will inevitably increase the number of government investigations and securities litigation targeting the oil & gas industry. This session will discuss how to protect your company or clients against this increased risk.

Moderator: Whitney Cox, Lead Counsel, Corporate Securities, ConocoPhillips, Houston, Texas

Panelists:

• Michael J. Biles, King & Spalding LLP, Austin, Texas
• Ashlee McFarlane, Gerger Hennessy & McFarlane LLP, Houston, Texas
• Bridget Moore, Baker Botts L.L.P., Washington, D.C.

4:35 p.m. (CDT)

Adjourn for Day

Friday, April 23

8:30 a.m. (CDT)

Navigating Washington’s Shoals: Cross-Currents Affecting the Energy Industry (Non-MCLE)

One of Washington’s leading lawyers surveys the Biden Administration and the new Congress, to help us navigate the legal, regulatory and policy currents affecting us –upstream, midstream and downstream.

• Jamie Gorelick, WilmerHale, Washington, D.C.

9:15 a.m.

BREAK

9:30 a.m. (CDT)

Lower Carbon Innovation & Legal Issues

The panel will discuss technological and regulatory challenges associated with the low carbon world, from both the commercial and legal perspectives, with a focus on Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration.

Moderator: Elizabeth L. McGinley, Bracewell LLP, New York, New York

Panelists:

• Jeffrey R. Holmstead, Bracewell LLP, Washington, D.C.
• Derek Willis, Vice President Legal – U.S. Onshore Resources and Carbon Management, Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Houston, Texas
• Elise N. Zoli, Jones Day, Boston, Massachusetts

10:30 a.m. (CDT)

BREAK

10:45 a.m. (CDT)

Ethical Hazards of Text Messaging and Other Electronic Communications: Lessons to be Learned

The modern world of client representation has become a world of almost instantaneous communications via emails and text messages. Today, our clients expect instant availability 24/7/365 and lawyers that are technology-savvy and equipped with the latest instant communication technology. These expectations impose obligations on attorneys and their clients and demand attention and sensitivity to matters of confidentiality, file retention, and waiver of various privileges.

• Anthony Marino, Liskow & Lewis, New Orleans, Louisiana

11:45 a.m. (CDT)

Interactive Forums and Networking (Breakout Rooms by Topics)

This session will feature interactive discussions regarding various aspects of an energy practice, with each topic in a breakout room having a leader to facilitate a discussion on that topic and to visit. Participants will be able move between breakout rooms.

Breakout Rooms

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Room
• ESG Practice Room
• International Practice Room
• Litigation & Dispute Resolution Practice Room
• Transactions Practice Room
• Young Energy Professionals Room
• I Just Want to Talk to Someone Room

12:45 p.m. (CDT)

Adjourn

Sponsorship Opportunities

Premier Conference Sponsor (Limited to 12) - $5,000 each

• 6 complimentary registrants at the Conference. Registrants may attend in-person or remotely.
• Company/firm logo prominently displayed in all conference marketing material and programs.
• Single page company/firm advertisement in online material.
• Company/firm logo on the Conference website, with link to company/firm website.
• Recognition as a sponsor on conference break slides and orally.
• Oral recognition as a sponsor at Dean’s Lecture.

Deans of Oil and Gas Practice Lecture - $3,000 each

April 21, 2021

Lecture presented by Reagan W. Simpson, Yetter Coleman LLP

• 3 complimentary registrants at the Conference. Registrants may attend in-person or remotely.
• Company/firm logo prominently displayed in all conference marketing material and programs.
• Company/firm logo on the Conference website, with link to company/firm website.
• Recognition as a sponsor on conference break slides and orally.
• Oral and visual recognition at the lecture.

Silver Conference Sponsor - $2,000 each

• 2 complimentary registrant at the Conference. Registrants may attend in-person or remotely.
• Company/firm logo prominently displayed in all conference marketing material and programs.
• Company/firm logo on the Conference website, with link to company/firm website.
• Recognition as a sponsor on conference break slides and orally.

CE Credits

CLE Credit

AAPL Credit

Other Information

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