Washburn Law Journal
Introduction
Volume 49, No. 2 (Winter 2010)
Fifteen years ago a group of professors and practitioners came together at Washburn Law School to share their thoughts on the discipline we call "oil and gas law" at a symposium titled: "The Future Course of Oil & Gas Jurisprudence." The proceedings of that symposium were published in the Summer of 1994, in Volume 33, Issue No. 3 of the Washburn Law Journal. On October 2 and 3, 2009, many of those same professors and practitioners, along with many new participants, came together at Washburn Law School yet again for a follow-up symposium titled: "The Future Course of Oil & Gas Jurisprudence II." This issue of the Washburn Law Journal contains the articles prepared by the professors who participated in the symposium.
As with the first symposium, each professor selected a topic to address and for each topic two distinguished practitioners were assigned, based upon their expertise with the subject matter, to serve as "responders." The responders read advance copies of the professor's work and were allotted time following the professor's presentation to offer their views on the topic. Professor John S. Lowe of the SMU Dedman School of Law opened with the presentation The Future of Oil and Gas Law followed by responder presentations from Sue Jean White, Associate General Counsel for Shell Oil Company, Houston, Texas, and Thomas C. Jepperson, Vice President and General Counsel for Questar Corporation, Salt Lake City, Utah. Professor Kendor P. Jones, representing the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley, P.C., Denver, Colorado, presented Something Old, Something New: The Evolving Farmout Agreement, with responder presentations by Anne E. Lane, Senior Counsel, Williams Production RMT Co., Denver, Colorado, and Milam Randolph Pharo, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for St. Mary Land & Exploration Company, Denver, Colorado. Professor David E. Pierce of Washburn University School of Law presented Royalty Jurisprudence: A Tale of Two States followed by responder presentations from George A. Barton, Law Offices of George A. Barton, P.C., Kansas City, Missouri, and Keith D. Tooley, Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley, P.C., Denver, Colorado. Professor Thomas A. Mitchell, representing the University of Utah, S.J. Quinney College of Law, completed the first day of the symposium with his presentation, The Future of Oil and Gas Conservation Jurisprudence: Past as Prologue, with responses from Mary A. Viviano, General Counsel, EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc., Denver, Colorado, and Timothy E. McKee, Triplett, Woolf & Garretson, LLC, Wichita, Kansas.
Professor Owen L. Anderson of the University of Oklahoma College of Law opened the second day of the symposium with Subsurface "Trespass": A Man's Subsurface Is Not His Castle with responses by Teresa J. James, Martin, Pringle, Oliver, Wallace & Bauer, L.L.P., Overland Park, Kansas, and John W. Broomes, Hinkle Elkouri Law Firm LLC, Wichita, Kansas. Professor Keith B. Hall, representing Loyola University College of Law and Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann L.L.C. in New Orleans, Louisiana, presented The Continuing Role of Implied Covenants in Developing Leased Lands with responses by James C.T. Hardwick, Hall Estill, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Steven D. Gough, Withers, Gough, Pike, Pfaff & Peterson LLC, Wichita, Kansas. Professor Robert E. Beck, representing Southern Illinois University Law School, presented Current Water Issues in Oil and Gas Development and Production: Will Water Control What Energy We Have? with responses by John C. Peck, University of Kansas School of Law Professor and Special Counsel to Foulston Siefkin, LLP, Wichita, Kansas, and Dale E. Cottingham, Gable Gotwals, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Professor Bruce M. Kramer, representing Texas Tech University School of Law, and Of Counsel to McGinnis Lochridge & Kilgore, LLP, Houston, Texas, opened the afternoon session with Keeping Leases Alive in the Era of Horizontal Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing: Are the Old Workhorses (Shut-In, Continuous Operations, and Pooling Provisions) Up to the Task? The responders to Professor Kramer's presentation included Gregory R. Danielson, Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP, Denver, Colorado, and Mark D. Christiansen, Crowe & Dunley, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Professor Phillip E. Norvell of the University of Arkansas School of Law (Fayetteville) presented Prelude to the Future of Shale Gas Development: Well Spacing and Integration for the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas. Responding to Professor Norvell's presentation were Jeff Kennedy, Martin, Pringle, Oliver, Wallace & Bauer, L.L.P., Wichita, Kansas, and David E. Bengtson, Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP, Wichita, Kansas. The concluding presentation, by Professor Bill Jeffery, representing University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, was titled Oops-Accidents Happen: Oil Pollution Prevention at Onshore Production Facilities with responses by Diana G. Edmiston, Hinkle Elkouri Law Firm LLC, Wichita, Kansas, and Howard Bunch, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 7, Kansas City, Kansas.
The symposium was funded, in part, by a grant from the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation and a gift from Washburn Law School alumnus Kurt F. Kluin, Kluin Law Office, LLC, Chanute, Kansas. All of the responders contributed their time and travel expenses and the law firm of Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley, P.C., Denver, Colorado, assisted with professor travel expenses.
As with the first symposium, those attending found this event equally stimulating and informative. We are pleased to share the written product of the symposium through this issue of the Washburn Law Journal.
David E. Pierce
