Mr. Beckham is a Partner with Haynes and Boone, L.L.P. in Houston, Texas.  He has more than thirty years experience helping a broad spectrum of clients with bankruptcy and insolvency problems.  After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.B.A. and St. Mary’s University School of Law, Mr. Beckham clerked for United States District Judge Halbert O. Woodward in Lubbock, Texas.  Following his clerkship, he was a partner at Kemp, Smith, Duncan and Hammond, LLP in El Paso, Texas for almost twenty years and joined Haynes and Boone, L.L.P. in 1999.  Mr. Beckham has handled a variety of transactions including his representations of Houston Regional Sports Network, LP in its Chapter 11 proceeding in Houston, Texas, and of Credit Suisse as the Agent for the DIP Lenders in the ATP Oil and Gas Corporation Chapter 11 in Houston, Texas.  Some of Mr. Beckham’s former matters include his representation of Credit Agricole as the Agent for the DIP Lenders in the Trinity Coal Corporation Chapter 11 in Lexington, Kentucky, and his representation of Grupo Mexico, the corporate parent of ASARCO, LLC in the successful confirmation of the parent’s Plan of Reorganization in Corpus Christi, Texas.  He also has represented numerous debtors and creditors in energy cases and in cases with cross-border bankruptcy and insolvency issues in Mexico.  Mr. Beckham is board certified in Business Bankruptcy Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and the American Board of Certification.  He is the former Chair of the State Bar of Texas Bankruptcy Law Exam Commission.  In 2010, Mr. Beckham was named the 2010 St. Mary’s University School of Law Distinguished Graduate.  He is a Fellow and the Fifth Circuit former Regent of the American College of Bankruptcy, former Chair of the Bankruptcy Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, former President of the Moller/Foltz American Inn of Court and former Co-Chair of the United States-Mexico Bar Association.  In 1991-1992, Mr. Beckham served as President of the 20,000 member Texas Young Lawyers Association.  In 2012, Mr. Beckham was recognized as the Go To Lawyer for Bankruptcy in Texas by the Texas Lawyer.  Mr. Beckham is listed in the Chambers USA Guide to America’s Leading Business Lawyers and in Best Lawyers in America.

Topic: Declining Oil Prices, Asset Sales & Bankruptcy: What it mean to you?

Gregory L. Jessup, CPL is CEO of Jessup, Harper, Dean, LLC. He is a Certified Professional Landman, licensed Real Estate Broker and is a member of numerous professional organizations. Greg has held many offices including Chairman of the Dallas Certified Professional Landman (CPL) Certification Committee, and Director, President of the Texas Energy Council also serving as an officer on the OCS Advisory Board. The Dallas Association of Petroleum Landmen honored him as the Landman of the Year for 2001. He has also been published in the national trade magazine, Landman.

Greg has now been in petroleum land management for over 35 years, being actively involved in all phases of land operations, including negotiations, acquisitions, divestitures, marketing, maintenance, management, administration and offshore exploration. Greg began his full time oil and gas career as Land Manager for Kenneth C. English, P.E. in Dallas, Texas in 1982. He started Larson Energy, LLC in 2005 as a purchaser of Oil & Gas minerals in Oklahoma, eventually expanding the search area to 14 additional states. In 2006 Greg was Vice President of Land for Rooster Petroleum, LLC until its relocation from Irving to Houston, Texas. During his tenure he facilitated the $18.5MM acquisition of working interests in 17 blocks from PetroQuest Energy, Inc. [PQ - NYSE] in the Gulf of Mexico shelf. From 1997 to 2005, he was Vice President of Land for Magnum Hunter Production, Inc. and Gruy Petroleum Management Co. and Vice President of Land – Offshore with Magnum Hunter through its merger with Cimarex Energy Co. While at Magnum Hunter Greg assisted in the purchase of offshore and onshore properties valued in excess of $1,000,000,000.

Greg graduated in 1975 from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Administration degree in Management and attended both Tulsa University and Texas A&M University – Commerce (Oil & Gas Contracts and Real Estate respectively).

Topic: Ethics in Negotiation From the Landman's Perspective (Landman Do's & Don'ts)

Jayne is a Senior Staff Landman at Linn Energy Company where she has been employed since 2010. Jayne and her staff are responsible for post-close integration of assets including the due diligence, confirmation of and transfer of wells and underlying leases. During her tenure, Linn has closed on over 40 transactions and 2 asset exchanges totaling in excess of $15 Billion dollars encompassing properties in 11 states.

After graduating from Heald’s Business College in San Francisco, Jayne began her career in 1981 as an Associate Landman working for Thermal Power Company, a subsidiary of Natomas Company also in San Francisco. For the past 34 years, Jayne has worked within the energy sector, operated her own consulting business, and held positions as Senior Land Manager for Valero Energy Corporation, Landman for Ultramar Diamond Shamrock in San Antonio, Texas, and Manager, Right-of-Way, for SemCrude in Oklahoma City. During her career, emphasis has been on the preparation and negotiation of contracts, lease acquisition and compliance oversight, environmental permitting of exploration projects, data base design and implementation, due diligence review, and managing risk assessment programs. Jayne served as Vice President of the San Antonio Landman’s Association from 2004-2005, has been an active member of the AAPL since 1998, received her CPL designation in 1999 and is currently an active member of the HAPL. Jayne is a life-long equestrian and member of the National Sporting Clays Association.

Topic: A&D Intergration: Post-Close Review & Isolating Sepcial Assets

Jeff Weems is a litigator with the firm Staff Weems LLP. After years of working on rigs and as a landman, he has practiced energy law for over 26 years. Concentrating on litigation. Jeff represents working interest owners, service companies, midstream participants and royalty owners in a wide range of energy-based disputes. He is a skilled trial lawyer with a record of success in courts across Texas.

Jeff is a frequent lecturer and was the co-chair of the Oil and Gas Section of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation’s 60th Annual Institute. Jeff is a member of the American Petroleum Institute – Houston, the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners, and the American Association of Professional Landmen (AAPL). He was a member of the AAPL Task Force charged with rewriting the 2015 Model Form Operating Agreement. Jeff is a Texas Super Lawyer in Energy Law and is an adjunct professor of Oil and Gas Law at the University of Houston Law Center.

Jeff received his BBA in Petroleum Land Management with high honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1983. He graduated with honors from the University of Texas School of Law in 1989, where he was a member of the Texas Law Review.

Topic: New Revisions to the AAPL Form 610 JOA

Licenses Licensed attorney in Texas with oil and gas, probate, accounting and tax experience.

Education South Texas College of Law, Doctorate of Jurisprudence, May 2003
• Judicial Clerkship, The Honorable Mike Wood, Probate Court 2, Spring 2003
• Phi Delta Phi Highest Grade Award – Trusts and Fiduciary Responsibilities, Fall 2002
• Mock Trial Finalist, Spring 2002
• Delta Theta Phi Law Fraternity – Dean, Fall 2002 through Spring 2003
• Active Mentor in the South Texas College of Law Mentor / Mentee Program
• International Law Society, American Bar Association, Texas Bar Association

Southwestern University, Georgetown, Texas, Bachelor of Arts, May 1995
Major: Accounting Minor: German

Work Tri-Energy Asset Management, Houston, Texas, 2007 to 2010, Contract Landman
Experience • Anadarko Petroleum Company: Wyoming properties divestiture; East Texas title project researching, identifying and mapping units, contracts and leases for non-op East Texas properties, setting up new leases and contracts where necessary, and identifying title ownership for those properties;
• Acquisition and Divestiture Due Diligence: ElPaso Energy – People’s Energy: Acquisition of various Louisiana properties;
• Cabot Oil and Gas Corporation’s acquisition of East Texas properties;
• ElPaso Energy’s divestiture of several large packages including North Louisiana, Arkansas, South Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Gulf of Mexico;
• ConocoPhillips Company: Permian New Mexico Project verifying well interests, contract review and associated acreage reassignments, revenue recovery, and research and tracking a $20 million production payment from 1958 to 2009

Contract Landman, Houston ExxonMobil, 2005 to 2006
• Analyzed legal documents to determine chain of title, while resolving complex title issues
• Reconciled Exxon Mobil’s pay sheets with title opinion divisions of interest
• Cured title opinion requirements and recommended waiving requirements
• Created exhibits identifying current oil and gas leases
• Researched and compiled legal survey data for Unitization Project
• Handled a variety of complex issues, from the Open Mine Doctrine to double conveyances

Wist, Holland & Kehlhof Law Firm, Houston, Texas, 2002 to 2004, Law Clerk
• Assisted attorneys in various title and estate planning matters, including incorporating client businesses
• Drafted petitions, motions, discovery documents and pleadings
• Prepared bankruptcy petitions and attended bankruptcy hearings

Hast Law Firm, Houston, Texas, 2000 to 2002, Law Clerk
• Drafted title documents and bankruptcy petitions

Ernst & Young, LLP, Little Rock, Arkansas, 1997 to 1998, Tax Compliance Specialist
• Prepared income tax returns including: Individual, Corporate, Small Business, Partnerships,
Trusts, and Estate

Topic: Oil & Gas Lease Mechanics & Timing Issues

Randy Browne, CPL, is the senior energy transaction specialist and heads the land department in the energy practice group of the Haynes and Boone law firm. He has more than 35 years of experience in the energy industry, primarily in the land transactions area of upstream and downstream assets, and specializes in designing and executing due diligence programs for acquisitions, divestitures, and financing transactions for the firm’s energy clients.

He was a field landman and a staff landman for Goldking Production Company during the early 1980s but has been a landman for lawfirms in Houston for the past 28 year, almost 17 of which with Haynes and Boone.

He has been a speaker on acquisition and divestiture topics at the 41st Annual Institute for Professional Landmen (2000), the Landman’s Workshop on Acquisitions and Divestitures (1999) and the AAPL Houston Landman’s Institute (1999). He is also the co-author of several articles published by the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Journal; including A Meeting of the Minds on Title Defects (2006) and Organizing and Executing an Effective Due Diligence… Quickly! (2007).

Many of you may know Randy from his for his service over many years to HAPL and AAPL.

Topic: Title Due Diligence for E&P Financing Transactions: Role of the Landman

M. Ryan Kirby attended The University of Texas at Dallas, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics in 1998, and attended South Texas College of Law, graduating in 2002 with a Juris Doctorate. Thereafter, Mr. Kirby worked for several litigation firms, focusing on toxic torts, products liability, personal injury, fraud, and general civil litigation. After changing his focus to oil and gas law, from 2006, until founding Kirby, Mathews & Walrath, PLLC, in February of 2013, he worked as an Attorney, then Section Manager for the Texas and New Mexico group, then Partner of a large Houston-based oil and gas firm.

Mr. Kirby has conducted title examinations for a variety of conventional and unconventional plays in Texas, and has negotiated and drafted numerous contracts, purchase and sale agreements, communitization agreements, oil and gas leases, pipeline land acquisitions, surface use agreements, and other similar documents for oil and gas companies. Additionally, he has continued to litigate matters related to oil and gas.

Mr. Kirby is a frequent speaker at continuing education seminars for with landmen and Continuing Legal Education seminars. Sample topics at such seminars have ranged from “Anatomy of the Oil and Gas Lease” to “Pooling: The Unintended Consequences.” His most recent presentation was presented to the Houston Association of Professional Landmen’s Shale Play Seminar and was entitled “What Were They Thinking?! Making Sense of Idiosyncratic Language in Title Instruments,” which analyzed instruments with peculiar language encountered during examination, and their legal interpretation. Mr. Kirby also has served as an Adjunct Professor with South Texas College of Law since 2012, where he lectures on the subject of Texas Oil, Gas and Land Titles.

Mr. Kirby is a member of the Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Law section of the State Bar of Texas, as well as various landman associations nationwide. In his free time, Mr. Kirby is an avid lover of food (cooking and eating) and enjoys attending a variety of live music events.

Topic: Idisyncratic Language in Multi-State Title Instruments