Southwest Land Institute

Gregory Binns

Attorney , Holland & Knight

Greg Binns is a litigation attorney in Holland & Knight's Dallas office and serves as the co-leader of the Texas Litigation Practice Group. Mr. Binns represents clients in commercial, real estate and energy litigation, with a particular focus on oil and gas disputes. He has represented clients in matters pending or involving transactions in major oil-producing states and throughout the country as well as internationally. Mr. Binns has been recognized by various publications for his energy litigation work, including in oil and gas litigation by Chambers USA. Mr. Binns has extensive experience in oil and gas and other energy disputes. He serves as the co-chair of the firm's Energy Controversies Pursuit Team within the Energy & Natural Resources Industry Sector Group. His energy clients include major oil and gas companies, independents, midstream companies, lessees, investment funds and various oil and gas interest owners. His practice involves disputes covering all aspects of the energy industry, including allocation wells, title issues, joint operating agreements, farmouts, DrillCo transactions, exploration and production activities, and sales transactions.

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Mark Dore

Managing Partner, The Dore Law Firm, LLC

Mark A. Doré is the founder and Managing Partner of The Doré Law Firm, LLC, in Lafayette, Louisiana.  Mark’s experience in the energy industry has spanned the past 25 years and included both boutique and large firm experience.  This has allowed him to build a solid foundation in the energy sector, with a focus on transactions across the Oil & Gas, Energy & Infrastructure, Governmental Relations, and Economic Development sectors. 

From his time as roustabout to landman to a practicing transactional and regulatory attorney, Mark’s background cuts across multiple disciplines in the energy industry and it is this experience that affords him unique insights and solutions to industry members.  For the last 15 years, Mark has focused on a transactional and regulatory energy practice for industry members, both large and small.   

He has also been a key member in industrial project development, from land acquisition, due diligence, mineral clearance, and regulatory advice and planning.  These projects span the State of Louisiana, and include areas, such as LNG, solar, CCUS, alternative fuels, and more recently Data Centers and Power Generation Facilities.

For the past 8 years, Mark has been involved with both regional and Statewide economic development in Louisiana, serving on numerous committees, including the Executive Committee and Board for the Lafayette Economic Development Authority (LEDA), the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association (LOGA) Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Sequestration Committee, and the Louisiana Senate Task Force of Local Impacts of Carbon Capture and Sequestration.

Mark is originally from Delcambre, Louisiana but has made the Lafayette area his home for past 30 years.  He and his wife are the parents of 4 teenagers, which has greatly sharpened his transactional and negotiation skills.  Mark has authored presentations and has presented them numerous times across Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma to groups as diverse as University of Tulsa Law School, the Louisiana Municipal Association (LMA), the Institute for Energy Law (IEL), the Society of Louisiana Certified Public Accountants’ Louisiana Accounting & Auditing Conference, the American Association of Professional Landmen’s Southwest Land Institute 2024, and the Tarrant County Bar Association, Energy Section, along with many others.

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Monika Ehrman

Professor of Law, SMU Dedman School of Law

Monika Ehrman is Professor of Law at SMU Dedman School of Law and Professor of Engineering (by courtesy) in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at SMU Lyle School of Engineering. She was recently awarded a Robert G. Storey Distinguished Faculty Fellowship. Prior to academia, she worked as both a petroleum engineer in the upstream, midstream & pipeline sectors of the energy industry and as an attorney for Pioneer Natural Resources (now ExxonMobil) and a national law firm. She researches in oil and gas, energy, mining (terrestrial and outer space), Tribal energy sovereignty, natural resources, property, and environmental law & policy. She is principal investigator of a multi-year team grant awarded in 2021 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to study energy decision-making on fossil energy Tribal Nations. Professor Ehrman earned a B.Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Alberta; J.D. from SMU Law; and LL.M. from Yale Law School. She serves on numerous national and international boards related to energy.

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Rich Phillips

Attorney, Holland & Knight

Rich Phillips focuses his practice on appellate matters, with an extensive experience in oil and gas disputes. He has represented a variety of clients in appeals before Texas courts of appeal, the Texas Supreme Court, several federal appellate courts, and the United States Supreme Court. Mr. Phillips has been recognized by various publications for his appellate work, including The Best Lawyers in America Guide. Mr. Phillips is Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, a member of the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee, and has been a member of the board of trustees and past president of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society.

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Shaun Schottmiller

Parner, Oliva Gibbs

Shaun Schottmiller is an experienced attorney specializing in advising oil and gas operators of all sizes across a range of issues, from day-to-day operations to complex contract drafting and title reviews. Before joining Oliva Gibbs, Shaun enjoyed over 10 years in Midland, TX, practicing in both Texas and New Mexico. Shaun worked in private practice in the heart of the Permian Basin, and later in-house at a large, independent, Midland-based exploration and production company.

Shaun’s skills extend to negotiating, reviewing, and drafting key contracts and agreements, including oil and gas leases, surface use agreements, operating agreements, easements, farms-outs/farm-ins, master service agreements, purchase and sale agreements, conveyances, assignments, and pooling instruments. He regularly assists clients with developing planning, strategy, and structure. He also has a strong background in reviewing and analyzing titles for acquisition, drilling, and division order title opinions.

Outside of his legal career, Shaun is a USA Track and Field Level 1 Certified Coach and a Certified Personal Trainer. When not running, he enjoys traveling, reading, and cooking, all with his wife and son. A native Houstonian, Shaun now resides in Dallas.

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Jim Wicklund

Managing Director, PPHB

Mr. Wicklund is a Managing Director of PPHB, a Houston-based mid-market energy investment bank. Prior to this he was a Managing Director and Senior Banker in the Energy Group at Stephens Inc. He spent 15 years in the oil & gas industry, working in geophysics, reservoir engineering and operations around the world, living in Australia, Singapore, Milan, London a few times and of course Houston many times, with Western Geophysical, now part of Schlumberger (SLB), Sun Oil Company, McCord Lewis, and Exploration Consultants Ltd (ECL).

As a Wall Street research analyst, he has been ranked #1 in the II rankings, WSJ Best on the Street, Greenwich #1 in Industry Knowledge and several other recognitions and awards. He is a member and past symposium chair of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), on the boards of the National Offshore Industry Association (NOIA), the Energy Workforce and Technology Council, the Energy ESG Council, Nova Compression, and the Maguire Energy Institute Advisory Board, at SMU his alma mater. He is on the Advisory Boards of Merit Advisors and PRENG & Associates. He writes a weekly look at the energy market - Things I Learned this Week.

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