EDUCATION:                    Princeton University, A.B. English   1969
University of Texas School of Law, J.D.   1973

PRACTICE AREAS:    Oil & gas transactions; reserve-based lending documentation; counseling regarding business entity selection and operation; business negotiations

2/04 to Present                 Partner with Robert M. Timby, another oil & gas attorney; practice focused on energy related matters and financing transactions for companies and individuals engaged in oil & gas operations or participation; additional areas of practice include representation of entrepreneurs engaged in the development of new products for medicine and for Homeland Security and transaction negotiations.

Sole practitioner involved in energy related matters, including reserve based loan document preparation for commercial banks; counsel to various independent oil & gas producers engaged in domestic onshore and offshore exploration and production operations regarding issues arising out of acquisitions, operations, financing, administrative compliance, operating agreements; counsel to the owners of a coalbed methane gas concession in Colombia, South America and to another independent which has assembled and disposed of prospects both on- and offshore in Senegal, West Africa. Also engaged in providing counsel to entrepreneurs regarding business entity selection and operations, financing structures, capital formation; and engaged in providing negotiating skills in connection with transactions both in and out of the oil & gas business.

Member, Houston office. Engaged in practice substantially devoted to issues relevant to companies engaged in oil and gas exploration, production and marketing, including:

  purchases and sales of properties;

  counsel to banks engaged in reserve based lending;

  financings of transactions or for corporate working capital, utilizing conventional commercial bank credit, project or mezzanine devices, intra-company arrangements, partnerships, joint ventures and other mechanisms for obtaining financing;

  due diligence reviews related to purchases, sales and financings;

  operational matters, administrative compliance, risk management.

Other areas of expertise include corporations, partnerships, secured transactions, and real estate.

Junior Shareholder, Houston office (then the fourth largest firm in Texas). Engaged in developing energy practice after ten years in business. Practice focused on energy matters. Representative transactions included development of foreign acquisition fund for the purchase of domestic producing properties; pipeline asset acquisition; merger transaction between producer and pipeline company; structuring of off-balance sheet financing mechanism for development drilling program; project financings for a partnership’s shallow gas development prospect and for a prospective public company’s waterflood operation; joint venture for construction of methanol plant and acquisition of supporting reserves; joint venture for development of coalbed methane property.

Owner of independent oil company engaged in generating drilling prospects, acquiring leases, obtaining industry financing and operating during the testing and development of each prospect; six prospects sold, eight wells drilled, resulting in five commercial producers. The company’s activities were terminated because of a lack of market for drilling prospects.

Co-founder in January, 1980, of a company which generated and sold exploration prospects to the oil & gas industry. Its principal activity involved the testing of the Woodbine (deep gas) formation in Polk County, Texas, in numerous wildcat prospects. Black Stone generated, assembled and sold twelve Woodbine prospects covering over 150,000 acres of land to companies such as Exxon, Texaco, Santa Fe Industries, Michel T. Halbouty Energy Company, Pend Oreille Oil & Gas Company and other independents. These trades involved expenditures of over $15 million for leases and $55 million in drilling. The Woodbine prospects were developed using then state-of-the-art geophysical data collection, processing and interpretation techniques and resulted in the discoveries of several fields in Polk and Tyler Counties, Texas (in 1998 Black Stone’s interest in a field it discovered was sold to Comstock Resources, Inc., for $100 million). Mr. Walne’s responsibilities included managing the operations on several deep gas wells, marketing all production; obtaining, negotiating and documenting the company’s internal and prospect financing transactions; administration of investor relations; and serving as general counsel. The company’s shareholders included B.P. Huddleston & Co., Kentucky River Coal Company, H.E.S. Beheer (of Rotterdam), and Nedlloyd B.V. (also of Rotterdam). In 1986 the company was divided among its founders, out of which came Prospect Oil Company.

1980-1981                             Sole practitioner in oil and gas practice and origination of Black Stone Oil Company.

Associate attorney practicing in the areas of oil & gas financing transactions; oil & gas regulatory law; intra-company contracts such as farmouts, operating agreements, purchases of production; gas contracts; title opinions; federal income tax law related to oil & gas matters; contracts, corporate work, real estate transactions, probate and fiduciary administration, and securities work related to oil & gas matters. Supervised by W.E. Henderson (now deceased) and Wayne G. Dotson (now of Jackson Walker, Houston office).

MILITARY:                         Captain, United States Marine Corps Reserve 1969-76