Practice Areas
Acquisition of Mineral Properties:
Lear & Lear attorneys and paralegals have been involved in local and multi-state transactions involving the acquisition and sale of mineral properties. Representative minerals include proven and unproven properties for oil and gas, coalbed methane, geothermal resources, tar sands, oil shale, Gilsonite, copper (and related precious minerals), gypsum, phosphate, potash, molybdenum, boxite, and uranium. Lear & Lear lawyers often team as local counsel for large New York, Houston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles-based firms managing multi-state transactions. Our experience extends to the acquisitions of mineral interests in federal, Indian, state, and private lands. Also, we have assisted numerous operators in lease acquisition.
Administrative Hearings and Appeals:
We have extensive experience with administrative hearings before federal, state, and Indian regulatory agencies and county commissions. We appear regularly before oil and gas conservation commissions in Utah and Wyoming and have handled cases in Nevada (see Oil and Gas Conservation, below); the United States Bureau of Land Management, Minerals Management Service, Interior Board of Land Appeals; Bureau of Indian Affairs agency, area, and national director; and Forest Service; and state departments of revenue and taxation (see Mineral Taxation, below.
Complex Title Examinations and Acquisition Due Diligence:
We render mineral title opinions, status reports, apparent ownership take-off, and other reports. Lear & Lear attorneys work from abstracts of title or from their own stand-up searches. We have rendered opinions through-out the Rocky Mountain West and adjacent states covering federal, Indian, state, and private lands. The scope of work often includes company data room examination; traditional federal, Indian, and county title searches; permits, approvals, and regulatory compliance searches, and water rights verification, application, and permitting.
Expert Witness and Consulting Services:
Lear & Lear's senior partner has been provided expert witness and consultation services in connection federal and state court litigation and administrative agencies hearings. Representative matters covered include the potash and oil and gas disputes in southeastern New Mexico, mineral title and investment matters, unitization involving the Prudhoe Bay Unit (Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission), and oil and gas agreements, including operations off-shore Australia.
Condemnation: Mineral Project Access, Well and Mine Sites, Pipeline Corridors:
Lear & Lear lawyers have successfully handled numerous eminent domain actions in state court for oil and gas operators seeking to condemn oil and gas access roads, well-site locations, and facility sites.
Mineral Project Financing:
We represent mineral operators and lenders in local and multi-state acquisition and project financing and have served as local counsel in multi-state financing of oil and gas and Gilsonite projects. Lear & Lear lawyers prepare or review the financing documents, render perfection opinions, and record and file the documents.
Mineral Taxation:
We have represented oil and gas companies before county and state boards of equalization in matters challenging the application of severance and production taxes. We are not tax planners and do not represent our clients before federal and state tax courts.
Natural Resources Litigation and Appeals:
We represent clients in federal and state courts on a broad range of mineral extraction-related litigation, including judicial review of administrative decisions. We are licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court; the United States Circuit Courts for the Ninth and Tenth Circuits; United States districts courts for the Districts of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia; and the United States Court of Federal Claims. In addition, we are admitted to practice before the supreme courts of Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming, and all their inferior courts. In many situations we handle the cases internally or in conjunction with our affiliated firm, Jones Waldo Holbrook & McDonough, or local counsel.
Oil and Gas Conservations Hearings and Appeals
Our attorneys practice oil and gas conservation law regularly before the Utah Board of Oil, Gas and Mining and have appeared frequently before the Wyoming Oil and Gas Commission, and less frequently before the Nevada Department of Natural Resources. Typical matters include applications for spacing, forced pooling, gas flaring, compulsory unitization, royalty payment, and regulatory compliance.