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About Us

Paul G. Yale, Attorney & Counselor 

Oil, Gas and Energy Lawyer

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My Mission is to provide great legal work to energy companies and those with whom they interact. I accomplish this mission by being a highly responsive energy lawyer who is enthusiastic about excellent work, closing deals, resolving disputes, examining titles, drafting and reviewing documents, giving opinions on complex energy law issues, and providing highly practical, fit for purpose, legal advice.

 

Core Values: Excellence, Responsiveness, Grit, and Giving Back.

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I am Board Certified in Oil, Gas & Mineral Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and have decades of experience in both the domestic and international oil and gas industry, including 27 years working in various capacities with ExxonMobil Corporation and its predecessors. Before retiring from ExxonMobil in 2007, I served as Manager of Land for the company’s U.S. Production Organization responsible for overseeing all land activities in the U.S. lower 48. After retiring from ExxonMobil, I immediately re-entered private law practice focusing exclusively on energy title, transactional, and dispute resolution matters. I am a licensed attorney in in nine states and have worked in every major U.S. oil and gas basin, both onshore and offshore.


During my career, I have negotiated and documented countless numbers of upstream oil and gas transactions, including purchase and sale agreements, oil and gas leases, joint operating agreements, exploration agreements, unit agreements, gas sales contracts, master services agreements, drilling contracts, and many more. I regularly prepare oil and gas drilling, division
order and acquisition title opinions in Texas, New Mexico, North Dakota, Wyoming, Oklahoma, and the other states in which I am licensed.


I am a certified arbitrator and mediator, experienced in guiding parties to resolutions of disputes especially in cases involving upstream oil and gas contracts and complex title issues. I am frequently called on to provide expert witness testimony in litigation involving many types of complex oil and gas issues.​​

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Experience and Qualifications

  • Decades of experience in oil and gas title examinations, lease negotiations, purchase and sale agreements, farmouts, operating agreements, participation agreements, pooling, unitization, and other energy related transactions.

  • Regularly serves as an expert witness, mediator, and arbitrator. Certified Mediator and Arbitrator, A.W White Dispute Resolution Center, University of Houston Law Center.

  • Board-Certified in Oil, Gas & Mineral Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

  • Certified Professional Landman (CPL), American Association of Professional Landmen.

  • Partner & Energy Practice leader, Gray Reed & McGraw law firm (2009-2024) and Burleson law firm (2007-2009), Houston, Texas.

  • Oil and Gas Landman, Land Supervisor, Natural Gas Sales Representative, International Agreements Coordinator, and Land Manager, ExxonMobil Corporation, various locations (1980-2007).

  • Business litigation practice, Texas (1977-1980).

  • Licensed attorney (active) in North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah.

  • J.D., Southern Methodist University Law School, 1977; BA, Vanderbilt University, cum laude, 1974.

  • Find me on LinkedIn for more.

Honors

  • Selected for inclusion in the 32ⁿᵈ edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for
    expertise in Energy Law (2025);

  • Selected for inclusion as a Marquis Who’s Who biographical listee (2025);

  • Named a "Super Lawyer" by Texas Super Lawyers (a Thomson Reuters company) as published in Texas Monthly (2013–2023);

  • AV Preeminent® rated 5.0 in Natural Resources Law, by Martindale-Hubbell (the highest possible peer review rating Martindale-Hubbell offers in a specialty area), and AV Preeminent® 4.9 overall (out of a possible 5.0).

Professional Affiliations

  • Houston Bar Association (Past Chair, Energy Law Section);

  • Foundation for Natural Resources and Energy Law (Former Trustee);

  • American Association of Professional Landmen (CPL);

  • Texas Bar Foundation (Life Fellow);

  • State Bar of Texas—Oil, Gas and Natural Resources Section (Sustaining Member);

  • Texas Bar College (Fellow);

  • American Bar Association—Section on Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Law;

  • North Carolina Bar Association—Section on Environment, Energy and Natural Resources Law.

Community Service (2023–ongoing)

  • Pro Bono Volunteer, Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy & Legal Aid of North Carolina Inc.;

  • Pro Bono Committee Member, North Carolina Bar Association;

  • Reading Tutor, Augustine Literacy Project, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools.

Selected Publications,
2009- Present

Facilitating Collaborative Opportunities: The New AAPL Model Form Participation Agreement. November/December  2024 Landman Magazine (2024).

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Let’s Make a Deal: Selected Issues When Negotiating a Modern Oil and Gas Lease, 67 Rocky Mt. Min. L. Inst. 21-1, Co-Author (2021).

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Climate Change 101 for Landmen and Lawyers: Uninhabitable Earth or False Alarm?  State Bar of Texas Oil, Gas & Energy Resources Law Section Report, Volume 45, Number 2 (2021).

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Poverty, Renewables and Reality: A Book Review on Robert Bryce's A Question of Power, Landman Magazine (March/April 2021).

 

The AAPL Form JOA and Non-Paying Participants - "Mr. Green Leisure Suit" Revisited, 5 Oil & Gas, Nat. Resources & Energy J. 515 (2020).

 

Hydraulic Fracturing Law and Practice, 2019 Edition, LexisNexis, Co-author (2019).

 

Fracking Facts, Fantasies and Regulations in Texas and Beyond, Landman Magazine (March/April 2019).

 

Hydraulic Fracturing Law and Practice, 2017 Edition, LexisNexis, Co-Author (2017).

 

A Model Form Title Opinion: Time for a Revisit? 1 Oil & Gas, Nat. Resources & Energy J. 381 (2016).

 

Mediating Oil and Gas Disputes in Texas, Oil and Gas Disputes Course, State Bar of Texas, Co-Author (January 8-9, 2015).

 

The AAPL Operating Agreement and the Deadbeat Non-Operator, Landman Magazine (February /March, 2014).

 

Ethics; Best Practices for Lawyers Working with Landmen, 59th Mineral Law Institute, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University (March, 22-23, 2012).

 

To Waive or Not to Waive? Analyzing Oil & Gas Title Opinion Requirements, Landman Magazine (November/December 2009) (Selected as “Best Published Article in an AAPL Publication” for 2009-2010).

Core Values

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Excellence

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Responsiveness

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Grit

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Giving Back

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The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Photography Collection, The New York Public Library. (1938). Oil fields. Kern County, California Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/69b9e050-8de9-0136-af88-0d358cf3e692

Contact Me

CONTACT
ADDRESS
FIND ME ON LINKEDIN

Email: paul@paulyalelaw.com
Phone: (713) 444-8088

P.O. Box 844

Belmont, North Carolina 28012

  • LinkedIn

Licensed attorney (active) in North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah.

Important things to know; caveats:

  • Please do not submit any confidential, proprietary, or sensitive information to Paul Yale or Paul Yale Law PLLC before entering into a formal, written engagement letter. Paul Yale and Paul Yale Law PLLC will not represent any person or entity until after it runs a conflicts check and until it has explicitly agreed to do so through a formal written engagement letter.

  • Until a formal, written engagement letter is agreed to and signed as between you and Paul Yale Law PLLC no attorney client relationship exists, no conflict of interest can arise, and Paul Yale and Paul Yale Law PLLC are free to represent clients who may be adverse to your interest irrespective that you may have disclosed confidential, proprietary, or sensitive information to Paul Yale and Paul Yale Law PLLC. This caveat also applies to expert witness, arbitration, and mediation matters where no attorney client relationship arises.

  • Please keep in mind that legal claims are subject to statutes of limitation (a time period within which they must be brought or be forfeited). If your matter is time-sensitive such that immediate or near-term action is required, please do not reach out to Paul Yale and Paul Yale Law PLLC. Regardless, Paul Yale and Paul Yale Law PLLC are not obligated to take action on any matter in the absence of a formal written engagement letter.

  • PAUL YALE LAW is a service mark (SM) registered with the North Carolina Secretary of State effective January 13, 2025.

  • Copyright © 2025, Paul Yale Law, PLLC. All Rights reserved.

www.paulyalelaw.com

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