The arrival of Craig Stahl and Jeff Kuehnle as new partners in the Haynes and Boone, LLP Houston office generated coverage from numerous news outlets because of the lawyers’ substantial experience in high-stakes oil and gas litigation. Stahl and Kuehnle have expanded Haynes and Boone’s Litigation and Energy Practice Groups after joining from Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP in mid-August.
News media reporting on the move included Law360, Texas Lawbook, Bloomberg Big Law Business, Houston Business Journal (subscription required) and Oil and Gas Investor. Here are some highlights:
Law360 (subscription required), Sept. 6:
Jeff Nichols, co-chair of the firm's Energy Practice Group, praised the hires.
"Craig and Jeff are a perfect fit for our thriving energy practice," Nichols said in a statement. "Their experience serving on the front lines of complex oil and gas lawsuits will be a huge asset to our clients and bolsters our substantial presence in this area."
Oil & Gas 360, Sept. 6:
Stahl has decades of experience handling oil and gas litigation, including serving as lead counsel for oil and gas producers in multidistrict litigation and class actions with multimillions of dollars at stake. …
[Kuehnle] has spent the majority of his career representing major energy producers in multimillion-dollar cases. Kuehnle and Stahl have been working together for over 20 years.
Texas Lawyer (subscription required), Sept. 7:
Stahl said Haynes and Boone not only has a well-established energy practice, but the firm's network of offices in Denver, Fort Worth and San Antonio are a good fit for his practice. He declined to identify his clients but said he does a lot of litigation for upstream companies involved in royalty disputes, class actions and contract disputes. He and Kuehnle have worked together on energy litigation for the last 20 years, he said.
Texas Lawbook (subscription required), Sept 6.
Two areas of litigation that Stahl is seeing an uptick in are lease terminations and environmental cases related to pollution and seismicity claims.
Stahl says prior to the shale plays, the law relevant to lease terminations was well-developed; the advent of horizontal drilling and fracking has led to a wave of developing case law in new states touching the Rockies and Marcellus shale plays.
“It is an opportunity for courts to put new twists on old law,” he said.