When disputes move from the boardroom to the courtroom, Beatty & Wozniak helps protect the operations of our energy clients. Our team represents exploration and production companies, midstream operators, mineral owners, and infrastructure developers in high-stakes disputes nationwide.
The best outcomes come from attorneys who know your business as well as they know the law. Our strength lies in a combination of industry fluency and litigation experience.
Comprehensive Energy Litigation Experience
We represent clients in state and federal courts, hearings, arbitrations, and appeals in a variety of circumstances, including:
Royalty and payment disputes
Surface use and access
Oil and gas lease interpretation
Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) and farmout disputes
Drainage, nuisance, and trespass claims
Midstream contract disputes involving gathering, transportation takeaway, or marketing
Regulatory enforcement actions and appeals
Constitutional and statutory challenges to state and local regulations and laws
Intentional and unintentional business torts
Wrongful death and personal injury
Well control events, equipment failures and downhole well damage
Bankruptcy and lien foreclosure
Quiet title matters
We also defend clients in class actions involving gas measurement and royalty deductions and advise on disputes arising from seismic licenses, confidentiality agreements, and asset purchase and sale agreements.
Administrative and Environmental Disputes
Our litigation team frequently appears before:
We handle litigation tied to:
Produced nontributary groundwater rulemaking
Well permitting and dewatering approvals
Severance and sales tax assessments
Environmental approvals challenged under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the Clean Air Act (CAA)
We intervene on behalf of clients when environmental organizations attempt to halt projects and we help defend agency approvals that support energy development.
Preventing Litigation Before It Starts
While we are fully prepared for the courtroom, our first goal is to avoid it. We regularly advise clients on:
Best management practices
Risk mitigation in contracts and operations
Pre-litigation negotiations and dispute resolution
Document management and preservation
Whether it’s securing relief from burdensome regulations, protecting federal lease rights, or resolving contract disputes, we develop strategies that minimize conflict and keep projects on track.
Judicial and Administrative Appeals
Our appellate lawyers also collaborate to protect your interests at every stage of a judicial or administrative dispute. From guiding trial strategy to preserving arguments, to thorough and thoughtful briefs and oral arguments before all levels of state and federal appeals courts, we have the expertise and experience to protect hard-won victories, and reverse improper losses. Our team includes numerous former state and federal appellate clerks with inside knowledge of how judges and justices resolve appellate cases so we can help decisionmakers decide in our clients’ favor.
Your Energy Litigation Partner
We litigate — and win — where energy law is made and enforced. Our team has the courtroom experience, industry knowledge, and regulatory insight to advocate effectively in even the most complex energy disputes.