Dean Luthey, a Shareholder at GableGotwals, has been appointed by the Board of Governors of the Oklahoma Bar Association, upon nomination of its President, to the Oklahoma Supreme Court’s Committee on Judicial Elections.
GableGotwals’s Trent Shores, a former United States Attorney, and Dean Luthey, chair of the Firm’s Native American Law section and a senior trial lawyer, discuss the impact of the Supreme Court’s McGirt decision on criminal and civil jurisdiction in Eastern Oklahoma. From unique considerations for the energy industry to working with tribal governments, the McGirt decision presents both opportunities and questions for oil and gas entities.
Two GableGotwals shareholders recently spoke to the Oklahoma Judicial Conference at its annual meeting on topics requested by the conference organizers. Dean Luthey, along with Court of Civil Appeals Judge Stacie Hixon, gave a presentation on court awarded attorney fees. Trent Shores participated on a panel that included tribal Attorneys General regarding the United States Supreme Court decision in McGirt v. State of Oklahoma, holding that the Muscogee Nation’s historical reservation had not been disestablished.
Join members of the GableGotwals' Energy Practice Group for our virtual and complimentary Annual Energy Seminar discussing recent legal and business developments affecting the energy industry.
On March 25, 2019, a jury in Anadarko, Oklahoma, issued a unanimous verdict in favor of Range Resources Corporation (Range), rejecting claims by 11 plaintiffs that Range had underpaid their royalties. The plaintiffs had opted out of an earlier class action settlement and brought individual claims alleging Range had underpaid royalties on gas production from 13 different wells. Range maintained it had properly paid royalties on the proceeds received by it from selling the gas production at or near the wells to various third-party purchasers under percentage-of-proceeds or percentage-of-index contracts, and that the gas was a marketable product when so sold. Typical of many cases making similar claims, plaintiffs contended the percentage-of-proceeds and percentage-of-index sales were disguised “service” agreements, and that the gas was not marketable until after it was processed at the buyers’ downstream processing plants. Following a two-week trial, the Court submitted the case to the jury on plaintiffs’ claims of breach of lease, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty. The jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Range and against all plaintiffs on all claims.
GableGotwals shareholder Dean Luthey has been a general member of the International Masters of Gaming Law since 2013.