Thought Leadership / News
June 10, 2011 
 Press Releases
Gray Reed & McGraw Welcomes New Hires

Gray Reed & McGraw welcomes J. Wayne Ballew and Katie Ressler to the Oil & Gas Section and Olga Rodriguez as HR Director in their Houston Office.

J. Wayne Ballew's practice to date has focused on a wide range of energy industry litigation, transactions and projects located onshore, offshore, upstream, midstream, in the energy service sector, both domestically and internationally, including, but not limited to: various structure financing agreements; corporate restructuring; lease agreements; joint operating agreements; exploration agreements; overriding royalty interests; negotiating and preparing drilling contracts; surface rights agreements; master service agreements; confidentiality agreements; letters of intent; distributorship agreements; representation agreements; pooling and unitization agreements; review of documents before starting a transaction; negotiating and drafting purchase and sale agreements; conveyance documents, and related documentation to meet company objectives; and coordinating and conducting due diligence, including title, environmental and operational; breach of contract, trespass to try title, piercing the corporate veil, accommodation doctrine, and general energy and corporate litigation.

Katie Ressler joins the Houston office of Gray Reed & McGraw as an associate in the Energy section where her practice will focus on title examination. Prior to joining the team at Gray Reed, Katie held an internship with the ExxonMobil legal department. During her time with ExxonMobil, Katie worked with in-house attorneys on projects from various company departments, drafted legal memoranda, attended hearings and participated in fraud investigation and trial preparation. Katie graduated with honors from University of Texas School of Law in 2010. While in school, Katie was the Staff Editor for the Texas Journal of Oil, Gas & Energy Law, a member of the Women's Law Caucus and the Texas Oil & Gas Law Society, as well as a participant in the Thad T. Hutchenson Moot Court Competition.

Olga Rodriguez has over 11 years of experience in Human Resources. Prior to joining the team at Gray Reed & McGraw, Olga held positions at Baker Botts L.L.P. and Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Martin. Olga graduated with a BBA in Business Management from the University of Houston - Downtown and is working towards her SPHR certificate.

About Gray Reed & McGraw

Founded in 1985, Gray Reed & McGraw is a full-service, Texas based law firm with more than 100 lawyers practicing in Houston, Dallas and Tyler. Gray Reed & McGraw offers a wide range of legal services including business litigation, corporate transactions, oil & gas, tax planning and litigation, real estate, healthcare, trusts and estates, employment law, family law, and bankruptcy. For more information, visit www.grayreed.com.