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Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Houston Based Energy Law Firm Bankruptcy - Shades of 2006 ??

About this time last year I began to regret my decision to leave Houston to move to Kerrville. Not that I prefer the day to day struggle of living in Houston to a pretty laid back lifestyle here in the Hill Country. But, I kept reading about the boom in the Eagle Ford shale play, and about the law firms in Houston getting fat and happy doing deals and title opinions, and wished I could get in on the play. I even drove down to Cotulla and explored opening an office there. At the time it had no lawyers in the whole county.

The boom may be over, and there may be some lawyers and firms that are going to get slammed, like they did in the busts in 2002 and 2006. I joined the American Association of Professional Landmen last year, and get its journal, Landman. The Feb./March issue has  full page ad by the Sadler Law Firm, signed by its managing partner Randall K. Sadler. The gist of it is, they expanded big time, opening branch offices in Texas and other states. Mr. Sadler writes, "Our projections of future industry needs proved to be more aggressive than necessary, and the result is that the prudent course of action for us became reorganizing the firm." Translation: they filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the Southern District of Texas. " The petition says they owe more than $10 Million.

The Statement of Financial Affairs shows the firm's income for the three years before it filed the BR:
2011 - $19.6 MM
2012 -   24.2 MM
2013       8.7 MM

I am not mocking the Sadler Firm, rather, I am thinking, there but for the grace of God go I. My dad worked in the oil industry his whole life, and when times were good, everything was coming up roses, and when they were bad, it was pretty depressing around our house. When I went to college, he told me he didn't care what I majored in as long as I stayed away from the oil and gas industry.




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