Dean Luthey is a Shareholder at GableGotwals. He is a 40-year litigator who has been recognized repeatedly by his peers and clients for his litigation experience including in commercial and Native American law.
He has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, various federal circuits, multiple state appellate courts, and has handled matters in federal and state trial courts and agencies across the country. Among his clients have been major energy companies, Fortune 500 companies, Indian tribes and their leaders, national churches, state and local governmental entities, insurance companies, Big 4 accounting firms, law firms, and health care providers. Dean served for over a decade as general counsel of the Oklahoma Indian Gaming Association.
Dean has served in many law leadership roles. In addition, Dean was presiding judge of a temporary division of the Oklahoma Court of Appeals; president of a Tulsa American Inn of Court; president of the Federal Bar Association Chapter of Northeastern Oklahoma; served for 10 years as one of the 12 members of the American Bar Foundation National Fellows Research Advisory Committee; and presents often to the annual Oklahoma appellate judicial conference where the audience is limited to appellate judges, trial judges, and their law clerks. He has lectured at the American Bar Association’s annual meeting; meetings of the International Masters of Gaming Law; and seminars throughout Oklahoma. He became an adjunct professor of law at The University of Tulsa In 1986.
In addition to being named in Martindale-Hubbell, Benchmark Litigation, Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers, he was selected by the American Bar Foundation as the Outstanding State Chair for the Fellows of the ABA, of which he is a life Fellow. Further, he was presented with a Leadership Law award from the Oklahoma Bar Association and the Journal Record, as well as named to the inaugural “Men of Distinction” list published by the Tulsa Business Journal. He was recently 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.
Dean has had extensive involvement with the Tulsa area community and beyond including Chairman of Oklahoma Futures (the State of Oklahoma economic development board); Chairman of the State of Oklahoma University Hospitals Authority; Chairman of the City of Tulsa Revenue Bond Issuing Authority; Gilcrease Museum National Advisory Board; Tulsa Area United Way Board of Directors; University of Oklahoma College of Arts & Sciences Board of Visitors; OU/Tulsa President’s Advisory Council; Tulsa Ballet Executive Committee and Board; the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest, Austin, Texas Executive Committee and Board of Trustees; the Oklahoma Center for Community Justice Executive Committee; NatureWorks Board of Directors; Trustee of St. Simeon’s Home and its Foundation; and for 16 years Chancellor of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma.
Representative Experience:
Mr. Luthey’s career has focused on helping clients with significant problems. Some examples include:
- Became outside general counsel of Oklahoma’s largest retirement community after a $15 million tort judgment, led the successful Chapter 11 reorganization of the entity in which all bond holders and trade creditors were paid in full, and personally wrote the appellate briefs resulting in reversal of $10.5 million and vacation of $3 million of that judgment.
- When a NYSE gas producer company was sued for millions of dollars for alleged underpayment of royalties, handled all law issues as part of a trial team at a multiweek jury trial in rural Oklahoma that ended in the first jury verdict for a defendant producer in Oklahoma royalty litigation history. Wrote appellate brief resulting in unanimous opinion by the Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals affirming that verdict. Wrote briefs in opposition to petition for certiorari and to amicus briefs, which resulted in unanimous denial of review of the appellate affirmance of that jury verdict.
- When a NYSE energy company was desperately low on cash, obtained $90 million cash in arbitration against a NYSE national electric utility.
- When the Governor of Oklahoma unconstitutionally exercised a line item veto of general legislation, orally argued on behalf of the legislature leadership and obtained from the Oklahoma Supreme Court the third writ of prohibition against a sitting Governor in state history.
- When the U.S. Department of Justice declared certain Indian gaming machines unlawful, tried and obtained from a federal district court an injunction against the U.S. Attorney General and the DOJ prohibiting enforcement of gaming laws against the manufacturer and its tribal customers. The injunction was upheld by the 10th Circuit.
- When the national level of a main line Protestant Church was sued by parents of children abused by a minister convicted of the crimes, obtained summary judgment for the National Church and obtained affirmance by the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
- When a NYSE energy company was sued in an ERISA class action for hundreds of millions of dollars, resolved the claims with the company itself paying nothing to plaintiff class.
- Obtained judgment in federal court in Tennessee for a national energy company validating its termination of a coal lease, which was upheld by the 6th Circuit after his oral argument.
- When the federal national Indian gaming regulator attempted to promulgate regulations that would have destroyed class II tribal gaming nationwide, he organized and led a legal team that obtained withdrawal of the proposed regulations after litigation was begun before the agency.
- When an NYSE energy company was subpoenaed to produce sensitive documents previously provided to federal investigators, he orally argued against production in the Court of Appeals for the State of California in a nationwide appellate case of first impression and obtained a unanimous published opinion denying production.
- In over a decade of contested cases, including several tried to final orders, obtained multiple orders from the Oklahoma Corporation Commission saving industrial energy consuming customers billions of dollars in proposed rate charges.
- Obtained multiple favorable tribal court judgments after trial in tribal election disputes.
- As co-lead counsel, obtained summary judgment on the merits for a NYSE energy company after class certification in a securities fraud case, which was affirmed by the federal court of appeals.
- Obtained a writ of certiorari and orally argued a tax case for Indian tribes in the U.S. Supreme Court.
- When the legislature of a major Indian Nation twice enacted unlawful legislation restricting the Chief’s constitutional power, obtained judgments in two separate original actions from the Nation’s Supreme Court declaring the legislation unconstitutional.