Gary C. Johnson
gjohnson@shorefreemanmills.com
Board Certified Oil Gas & Mineral Law - Texas Board of Legal Specialization
Mr. Johnson’s oil and gas exploration and production experience is comprehensive – both in private practice and as the general counsel or associate general counsel of three exploration and production companies. He has handled acquisitions and divestitures and the related production loan financings in transactions ranging in size from a few hundred thousand dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars. Mr. Johnson has drafted and negotiated virtually every instrument that touches or concerns the acquisition, exploration, development, production, marketing and divestiture of crude oil and natural gas and the formation, operation, liquidation and restructuring of oil and gas companies -- purchase and sale agreements, credit and related bank group agreements, collateralized production loan financings, leases, royalty owner agreements, working interest owner agreements, surface owner and damage agreements, farm-outs and farm-ins, joint development agreements, exploration agreements, operating agreements, gas sales contracts, oil sales contracts, buy-sell agreements for crude oil, ISDA agreements, pipeline use agreements and division orders; partnership, corporation and limited liability company agreements, minutes and board presentations, acquisition agreements for the purchase and sell of assets out of bankrupt estates and related documents, purchase of producing property assets out of bankrupt estates, unsecured creditors committee strategy papers and liquidation plans for drilling and refinery assets.
In addition Mr. Johnson has worked on all types of oil and gas litigation – landowner damage/pollution cases, royalty owner suits, operating agreement disputes, class action royalty owner claims, fraud claims, and administrative agency disputes at the local, state and national levels and disputed claims in bankruptcy.
Affiliations
- State Bar of Texas – College of the State Bar of Texas
- District of Columbia Bar Association
- American Bar Association
- Houston Bar Association
- Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association
- Texas Oil & Gas Association
- Independent Petroleum Association of America
- Texas Business Law Foundation -- Fellow
- Texas Bar Foundation -- Sustaining Life Fellow
- Houston Bar Foundation -- Life Fellow
- The Center for American and International Law
- Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation
- National Institute of Trial Advocacy – National Session, Discovery Deposition Program, Advanced Professional Training Program and Faculty School at Harvard
Bar Admissions
- Courts of the State of Texas
- Courts of the District of Columbia
- United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas
- United States District Court for the Western District of Texas
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
- United States Supreme Court
Education
- J.D., University of Texas School of Law (Associate Editor, Texas Law Review)
- B.A., Austin College, Sherman, Texas (Alpha Chi National Honor Society and Pi Gamma Mu National Social Science Honor Society)
Prior Associations and Legal Experience
Mr. Johnson has been in both private and corporate practice for over thirty two years. In 1976 he became associated with Foreman & Dyess, first in its Houston office and then in its Washington, D.C. office, representing clients in the acquisition, financing, exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas and in related administrative and judicial proceedings. In 1981 Mr. Johnson became the first Vice President & General Counsel and Secretary of Houston Oil & Refining, Inc., where he remained until it was liquidated in July 1983. Houston Oil explored for, produced and traded crude oil, and constructed and leased drilling rigs. During the liquidation process, Mr. Johnson served as the strategist and implementation specialist for the court-appointed liquidator. In 1983 Mr. Johnson joined Roy M. Huffington, Inc. as Associate General Counsel. Huffington owned and operated oil and gas properties, a refinery and drilling rigs in the United States, Indonesia, Ecuador and Turkey, and Mr. Johnson’s practice concerned national and international exploration, production, trading and refining of crude oil and natural gas. In addition, Mr. Johnson managed the orderly liquidation of Huffington’s fleet of drilling rigs and its California refinery, and the negotiation of secured and unsecured creditors’ rights pertaining to those assets.
In 1984 Mr. Johnson became a Capital Partner in a firm that later merged into Jackson & Walker. At Jackson & Walker and its predecessors, Mr. Johnson concentrated on both oil and gas office practice and oil and gas litigation. Also there he was a member of the management, serving at various times on the Executive Committee, as the Chief Operating Officer, as the Hiring Partner, and as Head of the Energy Litigation Group. Mr. Johnson represented crude oil and natural gas exploration and production companies; state, national and international banks; and commercial enterprises and individuals – all in connection with their efforts and controversies in the oilfield. In addition, he served as one of the counsel to Tomlinson Interests, Inc in the liquidation of its oil and gas assets and the management of its pre and post petition rights and obligations with secured and unsecured creditors and those holding disputed claims. In 1991 Mr. Johnson became an Equity Partner in the Houston office of Keck, Mahin & Cate, a national firm headquartered in Chicago. There he handled all aspects of its oil and gas practice, including oil and gas litigation.
In 1995 Mr. Johnson became the first general counsel of Citation Oil & Gas Corp., where he remained for thirteen years, resigning in February 2008 as its Senior Vice President & General Counsel and Secretary, Co-Trustee and Chairman of the Investment Committee for its Retirement Savings Plan, Co-Member of its Incentive Plan Committee and Chief Compliance Officer under its Corporate Compliance Policy Statement and Code Of Conduct. Citation has ownership interests in over 10,000 wells in more than 345 separately designated fields in the central third of the U.S., with concentrated positions in the Mid-Continent, Permian Basin and Rocky Mountain regions. During his tenure at Citation Mr. Johnson served in a number of capacities, at various times holding managerial responsibility for the Legal, Land, Administration (Human Resources, Corporate Administration and Building), and Information Technology Departments. Mr. Johnson also supervised the company’s risk management activities, including all of its insurance programs. Mr. Johnson led the company in its purchase of a Midwestern producing property from a pre petition estate and then led a consortium of bidders in their effort to purchase significant producing property assets from the estate in its insolvency proceeding. During his tenure at Citation, Mr. Johnson supervised both employees and outside counsel in the management of Citation’s claims in bankruptcy cases.
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