Welcome To Barnes And Lewis Law Firm

Barnes & Lewis, LLP., was founded in 1992 by Robert N. Barnes and Patranell Britten Lewis. Mr. Barnes had been a partner in the firm of Stack & Barnes, P.C., well known in the areas of oil, gas and environmental litigation. Ms. Lewis was an associate of the Stack & Barnes Firm.

Barnes & Lewis, LLP., currently practices primarily in the area of complex oil and gas litigation. The Firm was one of three firms which recently represented a class of gas royalty owners in the Oklahoma Panhandle case of Bridenstine v. Kaiser-Francis Oil Company. Mr. Barnes was the lead counsel. After a five week trial in Guymon, Oklahoma, the jury awarded the royalty class approximately $74 million in actual and punitive damages. This is believed to be among the largest jury awards in Oklahoma history. The District Court's judgment for the Class and against Kaiser-Francis was affirmed on appeal. On March 8, 2004, the Oklahoma Supreme Court denied certiorari. The mandate of the Oklahoma Supreme Court was issued on April 1, 2004, at which time Kaiser- Francis became obligated to pay the Class $75,164,149.95, plus interest thereafter in the amount of approximately $20,000.00 per day. In addition to these sums, the Class has been awarded its attorneys fees and litigation costs at trial and on appeal, the amounts of which are currently being determined by the District Court.

After the mandate was issued, on April 1, 2004, Kaiser-Francis filed motions with the United States Bankruptcy Court in Houston, Texas seeking: a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction barring the Class from collecting its judgment pending further determinations by the Bankruptcy Court; a declaratory judgment that Class damages attributable to time periods prior to February 19, 1991 were discharged in bankruptcy and hence cannot be collected against Kaiser-Francis; and that Kaiser-Francis be awarded damages against the Class for having sought recovery of damages against Kaiser-Francis for time periods prior to February 19, 1991.

On August 23, 2004, the parties in the Bridenstine v. Kaiser-Francis lawsuit reached a settlement after the case has been pending for over 9 years. Please see “Bridenstine Class” for more information.

The Firm has reached settlements in Brumley v. ConocoPhillips and Kouns, et al v. Conoco, Inc. and is active in several other royalty owner matters, Simmons v. Anadarko, Wade v. Citation and El Reno, et al v. Mack Energy Company, et al. The Firm also represents several oil and gas entities, both as plaintiffs and as defendants. As an example in 2001, Barnes & Lewis, P.C. successfully defended Aspect Resources LLC, a Denver-based company, in a Texas jury trial brought by several homeowners claiming damage to their homes due to Aspect’s seismic activities. The firm also has a long history of handling environmental cases, primarily on behalf of plaintiffs seeking cleanup of oilfield pollution.