Bernard F. Clark, Jr.
The oil and gas industry produces energy, but it runs on money. For 40 years, Buddy Clark has helped his clients access the precious resource of capital.
As co-chair of our Energy Practice Group, Buddy represents producers, banks, and private capital providers, accessing and providing capital to the energy industry. Buddy is a frequent speaker at oil and gas conferences and is often cited as an authority on current issues facing the oil and gas industry in energy trade publications and financial journals. He is the author of Oil Capital: The History of American Oil, Wildcatters, Independents and Their Bankers, which explains the historical relationship between independent producers and their capital providers in America’s oil and gas industry.
Buddy is an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law and SMU Dedman School of Law where he teaches transactional energy finance.
- Adjunct Professor, SMU Law School
- Adjunct Professor, UT Law School
- State Bar of Texas (Member, Natural Resources and Banking Law Sections)
- Houston Energy Finance Group (Chairman, Board of Directors)
- Fellow Houston and Texas Bar Foundations
- Independent Producers Association of America, Capital Markets Committee
- Recognized by Best Lawyers as a 2020 "Lawyer of the Year," Woodward/White, Inc.
- Named as a "world’s leading practitioner in the field" in the Energy and Natural Resources Expert Guide, Legal Media Group, 2016
- Selected for inclusion in Houston Business Journal's list of Who's Who in Energy, American City Business Journals, 2015
- Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America, Woodward/White, Inc., in Project Finance Law, 2008-2024; Natural Resources Law, 2006-2024; Energy Law, 2012-2024; and Oil & Gas Law, 2016-2024
- Recognized in Euromoney's Guide to the World's Leading Energy and Natural Resources Lawyers, Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC, 2015 and 2018
- Selected for inclusion in Texas Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters, in Energy & Natural Resources, 2009-2023; Banking, Securities & Corporate Finance, 2013-2016
- Recognized by Martindale Hubbell® Law Directory with a Peer Review Rating of AV® Preeminent
- “Oil & Gas Finance,” speaker, Arkansas Bar Association’s 2017-2018 57th Annual Natural Resources Institute, Hot Springs, Arkansas, March 1, 2018.
- “A Short History of Oil & Gas Capital & Finance,” speaker, The Permian Basin Water in Energy Conference, Midland, Texas, February 23, 2018.
- “Accessing E&P Capital in 2018,” speaker, The Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Gulf Coast Section’s General Meeting, Houston, Texas, January 11, 2018.
- “Oil Capital and the Rise of Independent American Oilmen” Kay Bailey Hutcheson Center for Energy, Law & Business Distinguished Lecture Series, November 8, 2016.
- “Avoiding Litigation: Crash Course in Oil Capital – Lessons Learned and Relearned,” 15th Energy Litigation Conference, November 3, 2016.
- “Oil Capital; Lessons Learned and Relearned,” Presenter, 2016 NARO National Convention, Dallas, Texas, October 7, 2016.
- Excerpt of “Oil Capital: The History of American Oil, Wildcatters, Independents and Their Bankers,” Oil and Gas, Natural Resources and Energy Journal, Volume 2, Number 2 (2016) University of Oklahoma College of Law, Oil, Gas and Energy Center.
- "Looking Back on Lessons Learned,” panel leader, IPAA Conference “Managing Debt in Troubled Times – Surviving 2016," April 21, 2016.
- "New Capital Sources," moderator, IPAA Private Capital Conference - Private Capital Adapts to New American Energy Paradigm, Houston, Texas, January 22, 2016.
- IPAA Private Capital Conference, moderator, Houston, Texas, January 29, 2015.
- “A Dozen Ways to Stretch Your Borrowing Base,” guest article, State Bar of Texas Corporate Counsel Section, Winter 2015.
- “New Paradigm in E&P Finance," guest article, Oil & Gas Monitor, March 10, 2014.
Education
J.D., The University of Texas School of Law, 1982
B.A., The University of Texas at Austin, 1978
Admissions
Texas
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