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John B. Thomas Partner, Hicks Thomas LLP

Education: Western Michigan University (B.S., with honors, 1983); University of Michigan (J.D., with honors, 1986); Judicial Clerkship, Honorable Edith H. Jones, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Areas of Specialty: Commercial litigation with extensive experience in energy, natural resources, and environmental law.

Representative Cases/Clients:

• City of Modesto v. Dow Chemical Co., et al. Lead counsel for R.R. Street in ongoing, industry-wide environmental contamination litigation against drycleaning chemical and equipment industry. In May 2009, John obtained a defense verdict before a San Francisco jury, resulting in exoneration of our client for an alleged $140 million in liability.
• Enron Capital v. KN Processing, Inc. Lead counsel for KNPI in dispute involving a propane "swap" agreement. Settled Enron's $33 million dollar damage claim favorably prior to trial with implementation of a revised swap agreement.
• Occidental Permian Manager, L.L.C. v. BP America Production Co. Conducted arbitration for Oxy in dispute over ownership of valuable oil and gas "call" rights in the Permian Basin. Obtained favorable ruling that awarded call rights to client from three-member panel of international arbitrators.
• Shell Oil Co. v. Chase Manhattan Bank. Represented J.P. Morgan Chase in an arbitration regarding ownership rights to Shell co-branded MasterCard portfolio. After various jurisdictional disputes, conducted expedited discovery and hearing obtaining favorable result.
• R.R. Street & Co., Inc. v. Pilgrim Enter., Inc. As trial counsel, obtained favorable jury verdict for client after ten-week trial in case of first impression under the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act.

Accomplishments/Honors: Named one of the best attorneys in Business Litigation, Texas Monthly magazine and Texas Super Lawyers magazine, (2003-2009); Named one of the best attorneys in Environmental Law, Inside Houston magazine, 2002.

Named by Chambers USA (2006-2009) as a top attorney in the areas of "Environment" and "Environment: Litigation."

Direct Line: 713.547.9106
Email: jthomas@hicks-thomas.com