Southwest Land Institute 2026

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.

---

Andrew Cooper

Co-Managing Shareholder, Roger A. Soape, Inc

Andrew Cooper, CPL, is a Co-Managing Shareholder at RAS, Inc. Andrew received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2006 and started working for RAS, Inc. upon graduation. The initial years of his career were spent honing his trade as a field landman where he was given the opportunity to travel extensively across Texas and learn the lay of the land in various courthouses across the state. In 2011, Cooper was invited in-house where he served as a Senior Project Manager and Vice President, before becoming a Co-Managing Shareholder in 2021. 
 

A member of the American Association of Professional Landmen, the North Houston Association of Professional Landmen and the Houston Association of Professional Landmen, Andrew obtained his Registered Professional Landman certification in 2011 and his Certified Professional Landman designation in 2013. He currently serves as the AAPL Region IV Director on behalf of the HAPL and is a member of the NAPE Operator’s Committee. In 2020-21, Andrew had the honor of serving on the AAPL Executive Committee. He has also previously served as NHAPL's AAPL Regional Director, President, Vice President, Secretary and Director, Chairman of the AAPL Field Landman Committee, HAPL Director, as well as a member of numerous AAPL education related committees. In 2022, he received the AAPL Presidential Award for Meritorious Service and in 2024, the AAPL Landman of the Year. 

 Away from the office, Cooper cherishes his time spent with his four children: Andy, Olivia, Harrison and Theodore. A native Houstonian, he enjoys hunting, golfing, and coaching his children's sports teams.

---

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.

---

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.

---

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.

---

Kyle Reynolds

Managing Member, RBG Permian

Kyle B. Reynolds, JD, CPL, & Immediate Past President of the American Association of Professional Landmen. He’s a seasoned pro in the energy sector with a knack for making things happen. Kyle’s journey has taken him from leading teams at Chesapeake Energy and Energen Resource Corp. to his current role as a managing member at RBG Permian. When he's not busy with all things land-related, Kyle enjoys cooking, exploring new places, diving into a good book, and passionately supporting the Arkansas Razorbacks. He's also a proud father of 3 and the entrepreneurial spirit behind Benjamin Lee Bison (a direct-to-consumer meat business), Bryant Moore law firm, and Greenway Capital Partners (a real estate investment firm).

Reynolds and his wife, Amy, have three beautiful children: Lila, Anne Douglas and Hardin. He enjoys cooking, traveling, reading, and all things Razorbacks sports, including writing weekly articles for The Pig Sty.

---

Shaun Schottmiller

Partner, 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.

---

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.

---

Julie Woodard

AAPL President

Julie Woodard, CPL, serves as president of the American Association of Professional Landmen, where she is currently focused on driving strategic growth and industry advocacy. She formerly served as the senior land manager for Expand Energy in the Northeast Appalachia Business Unit and has previously led land business development and exploration activities in the Mid-Continent region.

Woodard earned a Bachelor of Science in economics, pre-law, from Oklahoma State University and subsequently attended the University of Oklahoma’s Energy Management Program following her acceptance into law school. She currently serves on the OU Energy Management board of directors.

Woodard has been a member of the Oklahoma City Association of Professional Landmen and AAPL since 2004. She joined OCAPL’s Executive Committee in 2008 and is a past president of the association. Since 2007, she has chaired and served on numerous AAPL committees as well as the board of directors. She also has served as chair of the NAPE Operators Committee, a member of the Executive Committee as first vice president for 2025-26, third vice president for 2015-16, and president and chair of the AAPL Educational Foundation. Currently she is AAPL’s president.

Among her many honors, Woodard was a finalist in the Young Professional in Energy category of the International Oil and Gas Awards, Mid-Continent Division in 2013, included in Oil and Gas Investor’s distinguished list of “20 under 40” in the industry, and named OCAPL’s Landman of the Year in 2014 and AAPL’s Landman of the Year for 2014-15. Most recently, she was an honoree in Hart’s Oil and Gas Investor 2025 Influential Women in Energy.

In addition to her professional association involvement, Woodard is a past president of the Edmond Public Schools Foundation.

Most importantly, she is a dedicated and loving mother of three children: Grayson, Hallie and Henley. She and her husband, Brian, live in Edmond, Oklahoma. She enjoys spending time with family, being outdoors, vacationing and staying involved with her church community.

---

Brooks Yates

AAPL Past President

Brooks Yates, CPL, is senior vice president of A&D/land at Peregrine Petroleum Partners Ltd., an oil and gas exploration and production company with offices in Dallas and Houston and operations in Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Louisiana. Prior to joining Peregrine, he spent over 15 years as vice president of land at Ventex Oil & Gas Inc. During the 1990s, he was land manager for The Rudman Partnership. A native of Mississippi and an alumnus of The University of Mississippi, Yates began his career in the oil and gas business as a landman in various land roles with Hunt Energy Corp. and Placid Oil Co. in the 1980s before being moved to Shreveport and ultimately Dallas. A member of AAPL since 1985, Yates served on the Executive Committee as treasurer during 2010-11, spent three terms as a director and chaired multiple committees, including the NAPE Advisory Board, NAPE Operators Committee, Southwest Land Institute, Publications Committee and Marketing Committee. He also previously served on the AAPL Investment Advisory Board, Legislative and Regulatory Committee and Ethics Committee. He currently serves on the NAPE Operators Committee. He earned his CPL designation in 1991. Yates is a longtime member of the Houston Association of Professional Landmen, the Ark-La-Tex Association of Professional Landmen and the Dallas Association of Petroleum Landmen, where he served as president in 1992 and 2008 and was named Landman of the Year in 2009 and 2021. The Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association included him among the Texas Top Producers in 2013.  In addition, Yates is president of the Dallas Producers Club and a member of the Dallas Wildcatters board. He also is a Founding Advisory Committee member of the University of Texas Energy Management Program and a founding member of the Texas Alliance of Landman Associations.  Yates lives in Dallas with his wife, Linda. Married for 34 years, they are active members of Highland Park Presbyterian Church, where he has served as deacon and on various committees. They have three adult children and two grandchildren. 

---