Zac has spent his fifteen-year professional career closely tied to the oil and gas industry in multiple capacities. In his second year as a lawyer, Zac was tasked with running the legal department for a publicly traded company with market capitalization in excess of $3 Billion. Zac will be the first to admit that this was a daunting task as a young lawyer, especially when he walked into a Louisiana “legacy lawsuit” that was only a couple of months from trial in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. So, in the Fall of 2013, Zac picked up the phone and called Josh Norris. Within 18 months of that phone call, Zac’s company had both settled the legacy lawsuit and recouped 100% of the settlement (~$18 Million) from his company’ insurers. Like so many other clients, Zac called Josh and his team for anything and everything from that point on. Results: win after win.
In the decade that followed, Zac developed an intricate understanding of legal issues incident to the oil and gas industry, as he was a one-man show for most of his in-house time. Zac managed a litigation portfolio that averaged 90 lawsuits, ranging in complexity from oil and gas lease disputes to royalty class actions and complex environmental claims. Zac personally reviewed all contracts incident to his company’s business activities, from oil and gas leases to purchase and sale agreements associated with over $2.5 billion worth of asset acquisitions and divestitures. Additionally, Zac was able to develop valuable technical oil and gas knowledge through friendships he developed with cross-disciplinary peers, including reservoir engineers, drilling engineers, completions engineers, and geoscientists. A reservoir engineer peer, who also testified for Zac numerous times as an expert witness, had this to say:
“Zac is unparalleled in his ability to understand complex technical oil and gas data and subsequently turn it into a brilliant legal strategy. Zac doesn’t need an email or some form of writing to figure out what has happened. Just give him the data.”
When Zac decided to return to private practice, there was only one choice – with Josh and his team. Zac’s intimate energy industry knowledge and strategic capabilities make him a true weapon in the legal profession that The Norris Firm intends to unleash. In their first year of working together in private practice, Josh and Zac picked right up from where they left off in their prior working relationship – they made one of the largest privately held oil and gas companies in the US quit a week before trial.
Zac and the Norris team are dedicated to achieving the best possible outcome for their clients, and he would be glad to discuss how the Norris team can help you too.