Joseph L Shea

Biographical Information

Mr. Shea's areas of practice include oil & gas and energy (litigation and transactional work), toxic tort and environmental litigation, insurance defense, including products liability, tax litigation, banking and financial litigation, and contract and commercial (litigation and transactional work). His professional experience includes extensive litigation representing various businesses. He has represented numerous oil and gas producers and pipelines in matters ranging from environmental complaints to oil field operations to contract disputes to ownership issues. Some of his more notable legal decisions include Bondy v. Texas Eastern, a seminal case often cited for establishing the standard to be met in asserting a fear of cancer claim; Lieber v. Rust, relating to the establishment of predial servitudes; AmCom v. Patterson, one of the first modern era decisions of the Louisiana Supreme Court upholding enforcement of an employee non-compete agreement; Winterrowd v. Travelers, the leading case at the time establishing the manufacturer's duty to warn in products liability matters. More recently, Mr. Shea successfully obtained a complete estate tax refund of all deductions claimed in Anderson v. IRS involving oil and gas property valuation; secured reversal by the Louisiana Supreme Court of the Court of Appeals in Hudson v. City of Bossier relating to the proper distribution of gaming revenues; and obtained a reversal of the lower court by the Arkansas Supreme Court in Blanchard v. Sonat establishing industry favorable law in Arkansas relating to seismic exploration and trespass. Mr. Shea also has considerable experience in non-litigation matters, including oil and gas leasing and operations, exploration and production joint ventures, and business operations, formations, and acquisitions.