Firm
Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips L.L.P.
Practicing law since 2004, Taylor Porter
Partner Eddie Hughes serves as the Chair of the Oil/Gas/Regulated
Industry practice, and as a member of the Firm's Executive Committee.
Eddie's primary areas of practice include Commercial Litigation, Oil and
Gas Litigation and Transactions, Toxic Tort Litigation, and Insurance
Defense and Casualty Litigation. He brings his unique experience as a
former independent petroleum landman to counsel clients on both
transactional and litigation matters involving the oil and gas industry.
He regularly advises and represents clients in disputes involving Joint
Operating Agreements, Areas of Mutual Interest, oil and gas royalty or
overriding royalty, oil and gas leases, energy marketing contracts,
joint billing issues, operator/working interest owner issues, and cases
involving “downhole” negligence issues. Further, he represents a wide
range of clients in “Legacy” lawsuits, which generally involve claims of
environmental contamination and remediation, short-term and long-term
exposure to hazardous materials, naturally occurring radioactive
material (“NORM”), oil field waste, and products liability on lands with
or near oil and gas operations.
In addition to his litigation experience, he advises and represents
clients on matters related to mineral title examinations, including
leasehold, drillsite and division order title opinions, both onshore and
offshore.
Eddie has extensive experience in contract and agreement preparation
including purchase and sale agreements, surface and subsurface leases,
mineral leases, operating agreements, voluntary and reservoir-wide unit
agreements, farmouts, subleases, assignments of leases and overriding
royalties, and various curative instruments. He regularly appears before
the Commissioner of Conservation, Department of Natural Resource, State
of Louisiana regarding unitization matters. Before law school, Eddie worked as an
independent petroleum landman where he negotiated the sale and
acquisition of potential and existing oil and gas properties for various
small to medium-sized oil and gas exploration companies. In the community, Eddie currently serves as a member of the Louisiana
Bar Foundation Capital Area Community Partnership Panel. He formerly
served as the Chairman on the Board of Directors for the Greater Baton
Rouge Food Bank.