Alston & Bird has bolstered its corporate offerings in the oil and gas industry with the addition of Gaye Lentz in the firm’s Fort Worth office. Lentz joins Alston & Bird from Baker Botts LLP.
Joining Alston & Bird’s Corporate & Business Transactions Practice, Lentz brings 20 years of experience advising oil and gas companies in upstream and midstream mergers and acquisitions and other transactions. Her experience also includes representing energy companies in asset sales under the U.S. bankruptcy code and in litigation and state regulatory matters related to mineral lien disputes, drilling and pipeline permits, and tariffs.
“Gaye has built a robust practice advising on sophisticated oil and gas transactions and related regulatory matters in the upstream and midstream sectors for more than two decades,” said Justin Howard, Alston & Bird partner and leader of the firm’s Corporate & Business Transactions Practice. “Our oil and gas clients in Texas and nationally will value Gaye’s transactional and regulatory experience as they look to take advantage of opportunities to strengthen their market positions by acquiring or divesting noncore assets.”
Lentz’s energy experience includes transactions involving upstream and midstream assets related to resource plays in the Permian, Eagle Ford, Marcellus, Utica, Bakken, Barnett, Haynesville, and other shale formations, as well as in other domestic onshore and offshore exploration areas.
Among the deals she has advised on, Lentz most recently represented EQT Corporation in its $145 million sale of upstream and midstream assets in Pennsylvania and West Virginia to Diversified Gas & Oil Corporation. She has also advised a number of privately held companies in negotiating crude, gas, and water midstream services, including representing DoublePoint Energy, LLC in a joint venture dedicated to crude production in the Permian Basin.
Lentz’s administrative law experience includes representing energy clients in matters in front of the Railroad Commission of Texas, the Texas General Land Office and other state regulatory agencies. She regularly advises clients on drilling, pipeline, and water disposal permitting issues, as well as gas, water and electric utility regulations.
Before Baker Botts LLP, she was in private practice at Thompson & Knight and another large law firm. Prior to her legal career, she worked as a production engineer for Burlington Resources, the former independent oil and gas company now owned by ConocoPhillips.
In moving to Alston & Bird, Lentz rejoins former Thompson & Knight colleagues Rob Vartabedian, Conrad Hester, and Mitchell Griffith, who joined Alston & Bird in 2020 to open an office in Fort Worth and expand the firm’s Dallas office.
“We are excited to welcome Gaye to our team and reunite her with her former energy colleagues,” said Darren Hauck, partner in charge of Alston & Bird’s Fort Worth and Dallas offices. “Gaye’s arrival marks another important step in building out our corporate oil and gas offering to meet client demand.”
Lentz graduated with honors in 1995 from Texas A&M University as a President’s Endowed Scholar with an undergraduate degree in petroleum engineering and earned her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 2000.
Source: www.alston.com
