Before attending college Matt managed his family’s wholesale and retail gasoline distribution business. In less than two and one-half years, Matt graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in Political Science (with a strong emphasis on government and business courses) in 1981 from Loyola University and obtained his Juris Doctor Degree Cum Laude from Tulane Law School in 1984. Matt has served as lead counsel in several complex multi-party oil and gas litigation and arbitration matters in state and federal courts in Louisiana and Texas. Matt has participated in numerous unitization hearings before the Commissioner of Conservation involving oil and gas fields throughout Louisiana. Matt has recently prepared new oil and gas lease forms for use throughout Louisiana. Matt has also assisted clients in the formation and permitting of natural gas salt dome storage facilities in Louisiana. Matt is a frequent speaker on oil and gas, environmental, governmental relations and business topics. Matt is a Fellow of the Loyola Institute of Politics. Matt is a trained mediator and is available to serve as an arbitrator or mediator in oil and gas, environmental, insurance or commercial disputes.
Matt’s law practice encompasses all areas of oil and gas and environmental matters from “the cradle to the grave and beyond”:
- participating in the initial meeting with the client, landmen, geologists and/or geophysicists for a new prospect or acquisition (onshore, offshore or international) and advising clients in connection with the marketing and leasing strategy for the prospect, selection of the form of legal entity (public vs. private) to promote the prospect and to take and operate the leases, and drafting customized seismic permits, lease options and modern lease forms for the client;
- interacting and negotiating with landowners, non-operators/joint venture partners, creditors, investors, venture capitalists, lenders, federal, state and local agencies and/or their legal counsel;
- examining title and, when necessary, defending the client’s title in litigation;
- advising the client in connection with well permits and well unitization strategy (both pre-drilled and post drilled);
- negotiating, drafting, reviewing and providing legal and business analysis and advices relating to all necessary agreements including, without limit, financing, security and credit facility agreements, exploration and joint operating agreements, drilling contracts, master services contract, unit and commingling agreements, gas sales, processing and marketing agreements, onshore and offshore facilities use agreements, right-of-ways, servitudes, surface and subsurface agreements and all other relevant forms of transactional documents and contracts;
- investigating alleged violations of governmental regulations, well blowouts, wellsite incidents and death and personal injury accidents, advising clients in connection with compliance issues under state and federal regulations, meeting with personnel on location onshore and offshore, and investigating, representing, and representing clients in adjudication, criminal, and civil fines and/or penalty proceedings before governmental agencies;
- advising clients relative to and negotiating on their behalf with domestic and international insurance companies in connection with obtaining the proper insurance coverage and the acquisition of same and representing clients in disputes with insurers;
- advising clients regarding all types of disputes, claims, suits and related settlements that arise in oil and gas operations and transactions in Louisiana and Texas and serving as lead counsel in all types of complex multi-party litigation, arbitration and mediation proceedings;
- advising clients relating to the plugging and abandonment of wells and wellsite restoration and remediation; and
- representing clients in the environmental claims, disputes and litigation brought, sometimes, many years after the last well in the field has been plugged and abandoned.
