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FN-5105548 MN-5105548 LN-5105548, Esq.
Attorney, Arbitrator, and Mediator
Houston, Texas
Daily Rate $3,000
Current Sanders PLLC - Owner
Languages English
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Professional Summary

Arbitrator and mediator with 25 years of experience practicing law. Experience focused on business, oil & gas, and real estate disputes, with a Board Certification in Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law. Brings experience as an advocate to allow parties the opportunity to have their disputes heard, weighed, and ultimately brought to a close in alternative dispute resolution. Helps parties bring their disputes to an end through mediation so that they can resume businesses instead of continuing to spend time and money on costly legal disputes.

Sanders PLLC - Owner

Attorney, Arbitrator, and Mediator

Owner, Sanders PLLC (including predecessor firms), 2009-Present; Partner/Special Counsel, Burleson Cooke LLP, 2006-2009; Shareholder/Associate, Cotton Bledsoe Tighe & Dawson PC, 2000-2006; Associate, Alaniz and Schraeder LLP, 1999-2000; Associate, M. Steve Smith & Associates, 1998-1999.

Twenty five years of experience practicing law. Litigation attorney with a heavy emphasis on energy, commercial real estate, and business disputes. Board Certified in Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Energy:
Experienced in representing operators, non-operators, working interest owners, service companies, royalty owners, mineral owners, and surface owners. Has litigated countless oil and gas cases, including disputes involving oil and gas leases, joint operating agreements, exploration agreements, drilling contracts, service contracts, surface access, disputed mineral title, surface damages, royalties, and purchase and sale agreements.

Commercial Real Estate and General Business Disputes:
Experienced in handling numerous commercial disputes, such as cases regarding breaches of contract, asset purchases, business torts, partnership dissolution, non-competition agreements, and real estate.

Has been mediating for 15 years. Experience as a mediator in a variety of disputes, primarily oil and gas, commercial real estate, and business disputes. Amounts in controversy have ranged from $100,000 to $10,000,000 in all types of disputes. Mediated procedurally complex cases, including a five-party dispute among operator of oil wells, non-operating working interest owner, and landowner. Has mediated pre-lawsuit disputes as well.

Training includes Mediation Course in 2008 and Commercial Arbitration Course in 2012, both at the A.A. White Dispute Resolution Center, University of Houston.

Commercial Disputes:
Breach of contract, commercial real estate, residential real estate, among others.

Energy Disputes:
Operating agreements, oilfield equipment issues, surface rights, oil and gas leases, purchase and sale agreements, overpaid and unpaid royalties, joint interest billings, funds advanced for plugging operations, title disputes, among others.

My view of the mediation process is that the parties need a time and place to vent their frustrations and then focus on coming to a business resolution of the dispute. I believe the mediator’s role in resolving disputes is to listen first and then ask tough questions, help the parties develop creative solutions, and give opinions when necessary. My general approach to mediation is let each party privately educate me about the dispute and tell me about all of their frustrations with the other party. Once the parties have had an opportunity to tell their story—which is a key part of the mediation—I then start working with the parties to come up with alternatives to continued litigation.

University of Texas School of Law (JD, With Honors-1998); Southern Methodist University (BBA/BA, Magna Cum Laude-1995).

Admitted to the Bar: Texas (1998); US District Courts: Northern (2000), Southern (1999), Eastern (2002), and Western (2003) Districts of Texas; US Court of Appeals: 5th Circuit (2004); US Supreme Court (2004).

Board Certified: Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law - Texas Board of Legal Specialization (2007).

State Bar of Texas; Houston Bar Association; Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law Advisory Commission - Texas Board of Legal Specialization; Super Lawyer, Energy & Natural Resources, 2015-2023; Alternative Dispute Resolution, Litigation, and Oil & Gas Sections, State Bar of Texas; Alternative Dispute Resolution, Litigation, and Energy Law Sections, Houston Bar Association.

Has spoken on topics related to the oil and gas industry, such as surface use disputes, working interest disputes, and ethics in energy litigation at the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Institute, the State Bar of Texas Advanced Oil & Gas Law Course, the Ernest E. Smith Oil, Gas and Mineral Law Institute, the State Bar of Texas Oil & Gas Disputes Course, the South Texas College of Law-Houston Oil & Gas Law Institute, the South Texas College of Law-Houston Ethics Symposium, and other continuing legal education seminars. Has published articles on working interest disputes and ethics in energy litigation in the State Bar’s Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Law Section Report and the South Texas College of Law-Houston Law Review.

Houston and counties adjacent to Harris County.

$3,000 Per Day

English

United States of America

Houston, TX

The AAA’s Rules provide the AAA with the authority to administer a mediation including, mediator appointment, general oversight and billing. Accordingly, mediations that proceed without AAA administration are not considered AAA mediations, even when the parties select an mediator who is on the AAA’s Roster.
The information contained in this resume has been supplied solely by the individual mediator and may, or may not, be a complete recitation of their experience. The AAA assumes no responsibility for the content, completeness, accuracy, or reliability of the information contained in a mediator’s resume. If you have any questions about a mediator’s experience or background, you are encouraged to contact your case manager.
Mediators on the AAA Roster are not employees or agents of the AAA.