Edward D. "Eddie" Hughes

Practicing law since 2004, Taylor Porter Partner Eddie Hughes serves as the Chair of the Oil/Gas/Regulated Industry practice, and as a member of the Firm's Executive Committee. Eddie's primary areas of practice include Commercial Litigation, Oil and Gas Litigation and Transactions, Toxic Tort Litigation, and Insurance Defense and Casualty Litigation. He brings his unique experience as a former independent petroleum landman to counsel clients on both transactional and litigation matters involving the oil and gas industry. He regularly advises and represents clients in disputes involving Joint Operating Agreements, Areas of Mutual Interest, oil and gas royalty or overriding royalty, oil and gas leases, energy marketing contracts, joint billing issues, operator/working interest owner issues, and cases involving “downhole” negligence issues. Further, he represents a wide range of clients in “Legacy” lawsuits, which generally involve claims of environmental contamination and remediation, short-term and long-term exposure to hazardous materials, naturally occurring radioactive material (“NORM”), oil field waste, and products liability on lands with or near oil and gas operations. In addition to his litigation experience, he advises and represents clients on matters related to mineral title examinations, including leasehold, drillsite and division order title opinions, both onshore and offshore. Eddie has extensive experience in contract and agreement preparation including purchase and sale agreements, surface and subsurface leases, mineral leases, operating agreements, voluntary and reservoir-wide unit agreements, farmouts, subleases, assignments of leases and overriding royalties, and various curative instruments. He regularly appears before the Commissioner of Conservation, Department of Natural Resource, State of Louisiana regarding unitization matters. Before law school, Eddie worked as an independent petroleum landman where he negotiated the sale and acquisition of potential and existing oil and gas properties for various small to medium-sized oil and gas exploration companies. In the community, Eddie currently serves as a member of the Louisiana Bar Foundation Capital Area Community Partnership Panel. He formerly served as the Chairman on the Board of Directors for the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.