Practice Areas

The firm’s attorneys have an extensive history of practice before administrative bodies. The Firm’s attorneys have represented clients before a variety of Texas’ political bodies such as state agencies and commissions, including a wide range of local governmental bodies from city councils, planning and zoning boards, and county commissions to the state Public Utility Commission, Texas Education Agency, Railroad Commission and other political entities in the state.

Firm Partner Don R. Richards has been board-certified in Texas Administrative Law by the State Bar Board of Legal Specialization since 1989. He teaches the Texas Administrative Law course at the Texas Tech University School of Law, and was named by Texas monthly as a “Super Lawyer” in Administrative Law in 2005. He is a member of the Administrative Law section of the State Bar of Texas.”

Representation of banking and other financial-related clients, from day-to-day operations issues to complex loan documentation; foreclosures and collections (including bankruptcy creditor work); representation of borrowers seeking loans, including syndicated loans and the required legal opinions.

Dulan D. Elder of the Firm has represented lending institutions in a broad range of areas. He has been involved in the drafting of deposit agreements, in-house loan document form drafting, modification of Banker Systems and Laser Pro forms to conform to Texas law an individual bank’s preferences, representation of Trust departments in administering probate estates, trusts and guardianships. He has extensive involvement in simple and complex loan documentation for multiple banks and credit unions and agricultural cooperatives. In addition, he has prepared documentation for CoBank, prepared syndicated loan packages on commercial properties, and had heavy involvement in multi-million dollar developments of hotels, residential subdivisions and retail and office complexes.

Both Mr. Elder and Mr. Green have represented FDIC in closing banks and recovering assets of closed banks. The Firm has much experience in loan workouts from both the borrower and lender perspectives.

Choice of entity consultation; creation and operation issues concerning corporations, LLC’s, general partnerships (including limited liability general partnerships, professional corporations and professional associations), limited partnerships, cooperatives, and non-profits; conversion from one entity to a preferred entity; buy-sell agreements and other exit strategies; operations issues.

Representation of both sellers and buyers in asset purchases and stock acquisitions, complex real estate transactions and other complex commercial transactions. The following represents a few of the major complex commercial transactions handled by the firm’s experienced business attorneys.

• Purchase by clients of telephone exchanges
• Multiple sales of cellular entities and licenses to AT&T
• Development of Metroplex area Westin Hotels and golf course resorts and multiple residential subdivisions in Metroplex area and in Lubbock County
• Purchase and development of high rise office buildings
• Negotiation and drafting of telecommunications interconnection agreements
• Drafting and negotiation of electrical system interconnection agreements, including Wind Farm connection to grid.
• Negotiation of wholesale electrical power contracts.
• Creation, business governance and business issues of fertilizer company created by a consortium of agricultural cooperatives

Representation of both owners and contractors, as well as lenders, in the negotiation of construction contracts, financing and loan documentation of major construction projects, contractor/owner disputes; mechanics lien filings and foreclosure, subcontractor/supplier relations and other aspects of commercial construction.

The Firm enjoys assisting its clients in doing big things in small places:

In addition to providing expertise in the creation, operation and governance of cooperatives and expertise in the particular primary functions of cooperatives, be it electric, telephone or agricultural, the Firm handles not only the complex commercial transactions in which its cooperative clients become involved but also has long time involvement in related areas of law which spin off from the operations of cooperatives such as employment law, probate/estate law necessary to determine ownership of capital credits of decedents, and member/public relations guidance.

The Law Firm provides in depth expertise in all aspects of the unique legal issues affecting its state-wide base of cooperative clients, including cooperative creation, bylaws, capital credits, membership and subsidiary issues. The firm has particular experience in representing a wide variety of cooperative corporations across the state of Texas and its attorneys have detailed backgrounds and knowledge of cooperative history, governance, and operations. Aspects of the Firm’s practice for cooperatives include:

• Board of Directors governance and meeting issues
• Detailed review and revision of charters, bylaws, governing and operating policies
• Cooperative creation
• Coop membership meetings
• Capital Credit allocation and distribution
• Consolidations, Mergers & Acquisitions
• Subsidiary Creation and Control
• Employment issues
• Short and long term financing (RUS, CFC, RTFC, CoBank, etc)
• Key management terminations and related severance agreements
• Litigation Representation before Courts and Regulatory Agencies

Complex operational contracts:

• Telecommunications network interconnection
• Network, Fiber and Facility Agreements
• Electric System and Grid Interconnection
• Transmission agreements
• Wholesale Power Contracts
• Tower site and lease negotiations
• Asset purchase and sale
• Collections and bankruptcy creditor issues
• Vendor contract review and issues

• Governance
• Bylaws
• Policies,
• Annual Meetings

• Partnerships & Subsidiaries
• Strategic Planning
• CEO Searches
• Key Employee Terminations and Severance Agreements
• Human Resources

The firm has extensive experience representing electric utilities including state regulatory proceedings, franchise agreements, wholesale power contracts, interconnection agreements, pole attachment licenses, easements, and electric service agreements with wind farms and oil & gas fields.

The Firm has represented borrowers, done title exam work and given legal opinions to enable its cooperative and other utility company clients to obtain in excess of One Billion Dollars of loans from Rural Utilities Services/REA, National Rural Utility Cooperative Finance Corporation, Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative and CoBank, ACB.

The Firm enjoys assisting its clients in doing big things in small places:

• Selling/purchasing electric transmission and distribution facilities
• Mergers of electric cooperatives
• Negotiating Wholesale Power Contracts, interconnection agreements and related agreements with wind power generators in West Texas
• Other complex commercial transactions both within ERCOT and the Southwest Power Pool jurisdictions.

We provide full-service representation of business clients for day-to-day business issues including:

• Employment matters
• Contract review
• Lending and finance
• Asset/stock acquisitions
• Business conversions
• Subsidiary creation
• Texas regulatory proceedings
• Collections, including bankruptcy creditor work

The Firm’s attorneys handle both simple and complex probates of estates, including the administration of estate properties, funding of testamentary trusts and filing of any necessary estate tax returns.

With the Firm’s extensive Austin experience in state government, the Law Firm addresses the legislative advocacy needs of its clients in Public Law related matters before all aspects of Texas governmental bodies, including the Texas Legislature, city councils and other local governmental bodies.

• Residential
• Commercial
• Farm & Ranch
• Oil/Gas

Comprehensive representation of telecommunications clients including reciprocal compensation agreements, Public Utility Commission representation, regulated and non-regulated services, interconnection negotiations, protection of the federal rural exemption, IRU’s, easements and pole attachment agreements. The Firm has represented borrowers, done title exam work and given legal opinions to enable its cooperative and other utility company clients to obtain in excess of One Billion Dollars of loans from Rural Utilities Services/REA, National Rural Utility Cooperative Finance Corporation, Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative and CoBank, ACB.

The Firm enjoys assisting its clients in doing big things in small places:

• Interconnection agreements between its telecommunications cooperatives and other providers
• Creation and governance of non-regulated subsidiary activities to protect core cooperative assets and maximize tax treatment
• Negotiation and sale and purchase of wireless facilities.