Energy Thought Leadership

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I am the James McCulloch Chair in Energy Law at Tulane Law School. I have practiced law for twenty years, advising global energy stakeholders in industry, finance, and government. In 2024, I received Tulane University's Convergence Award for my work on building an inter-disciplinary research community at Tulane, resulting in the inter-disciplinary Tulane Future of Energy Forum. My work has helped bring together energy leaders from government, international organizations, finance, industry, law practice, and, of course, academia.  

I am the co-lead investigator for OPEC’s Energy Transition Policy & Regulatory Briefs. I received an Official Proclamation of Gratitude from Mongolia’s Minister of Justice for my representation of Mongolia in a significant international legal dispute. I serve or served on multiple boards, including the Executive Councils of the American Society of International Law (ASIL) and the Institute for Energy Law (IEL) and the Board of the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA). I hold multiple editorial positions, including on the Board of Trustees of the Trans-Lex Principles and previously served as Editor-in-Chief of InvestmentClaims, published by Oxford University Press. I currently serve as an arbitrator on the energy roster of the AAA-ICDR. 

I have written or edited eighteen books on energy and transnational legal questions. These books include my trilogy on global energy governance in transition – Principles of International Energy Transition Law (with Leonardo Sempertegui, Oxford University Press 2023); The Transnational Law of Renewable Energy (with Teddy Baldwin & Catherine Banet, Oxford University Press 2024) and A Theory of Global Energy Governance (Oxford University Press 2025). This trilogy approaches the energy trilemma through the lens of international law, transnational energy law, and the political economy of the global energy system. 

My book on Good Faith in Transnational Law – A Pluralist Account (Brill 2022) won the 2023 ABILA International Law Book Prize. It addresses the role of good faith in transnational commercial law to achieve arbitration outcomes consistent with good international commercial practice. My Evidence in International Investment Arbitration (with Kabir Duggal and Ian Laird, Oxford University Press 2018) is the standard work on the topic, being regularly cited by lawyers, tribunals, and academics alike. I have co-authored two textbooks on arbitration (one on international arbitration and one on domestic U.S. arbitration, both with Michael Nolan) and co-authored the leading text on international petroleum law and transactions (with Owen Anderson, John Dzienkowski, Keith Hall, John Lowe, and Jacqueline Weaver; my focus was on the international dispute resolution chapter.)

My articles are similarly impactful. The Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review published by the Environment Law Institute recognized my article Geo-Markets (Virginia Environmental Law Journal 2020) as one of the top 20 articles published in U.S. law journals in 2020. Geo-Markets proposed a market-based approach for an integrated deployment of geo-engineering approaches. My article on the precautionary principle in international environmental law, The Precaution Presumption, which appeared twelve months later in the 2020 volume of the European Journal of International Law has been approvingly quoted by the Court of Appeals of New Zealand. The Portuguese constitution court relied on my article on the concept of reasonableness, The Necessary Diversity the Common Law (Maine Law Review 2014). Finally, my work on treaty termination has, including Keep the Faith: Investment Protection Following The Denunciation Of International Investment Agreements and Reason and Reasonableness (Santa Clara International Law Journal 2012) has been cited in ICSID jurisprudence.

I have been a lawyer in energy disputes and negotiations for over twenty years. I represented leading global energy companies, independents, project companies, their shareholders and lenders, as well as host state entities. I have experience under AAA, ICC, LCIA, ICSID, UNCITRAL, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce arbitration rules. I have assisted in negotiations between energy and metallurgical investors with their respective host states to prevent the nationalization of their assets. I have provided emergency advice to investors in the energy sector with principals facing imminent arrest to advise on available legal recourse to protect these principals and company assets. I finally have advised energy stakeholders with regard to a maritime boundary dispute in the South China Sea.

I formed part of three legal teams that created new precedent. While at Fulbright & Jaworski at the beginning of my career, I was a member of the large legal team that defended Yukos Oil Company in its commercial arbitrations and global bankruptcy proceedings, paving the way for the eventual purchase by PKN Orlen of the Mazeikiu Nafta refinery in Poland. While at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, I was counsel of record for Fraport AG in its successful ICSID annulment proceedings in Fraport AG Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide v Philippines. The resulting annulment decision helped establish the contours of the right to be heard in international arbitration and has since been cited in over 50 later ICSID annulment decisions. Finally, also while at Milbank, I was counsel of record for in Paushok v. Mongolia in a case involving claims arising out of a windfall profits tax levied by Mongolia. The resulting decision helped establish the importance of stabilization agreements in international investment law and has been cited over 250 times to date. I received my Mongolian commendation ('Proclamation of Gratitude') for my work on this case. 

I was recognized several times by Who's Who Legal/ Global Arbitration Review as a Future Leader in Arbitration (Non-Partner). I continue to act as arbitration counsel, most recently for the Republic of Armenia in its ICSID dispute with Rasia FZE. I further acted as counsel for the Republic of Armenia in its ICSID dispute with Mr. Khudyan and Arin Capital & Investment Corp. 

In further also serve as a consulting, as well as as testifying expert. I have acted as a consulting expert in an International Court of Justice proceeding as well as in ICSID proceedings for energy and infrastructure stakeholders. I currently serve as a testifying expert on energy law and policy as well as international environmental law in two separate ICSID proceedings. 

I previously served as the Robert J. Dole Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Oil and Gas Law Center at Washburn University, in Topeka, Kansas. I practiced law at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy (today Milbank) and Fulbright & Jaworski (today Norton Rose Fulbright). I hold a PhD in Law from the Goethe Universität, Frankfurt a.M., a J.D. from Tulane University Law School, an MA from the University of York (UK), and a candidatus magisterii from the University of Oslo.