Insights
What is changing in Texas business, energy and critical-minerals law, and what to do about it — written by the partners who handle the work.
A $15.5 billion legal AI company, venture-backed law firms negotiating a billion dollars of contracts, private equity buying the back office of firms from Louisiana to Los Angeles. Scott Beckmen on what changed since September, why Rule 5.04 is not the obstacle it looks like, and how the management-company structure lets a Texas firm take capital without crossing the line.
Scott Beckmen · October 23, 2026A conventional oil and gas title opinion answers who owns the hydrocarbons. A Smackover lithium project needs an opinion that answers who owns the brine minerals — a different examination, from a different starting point. What a brine mineral title opinion covers, why lenders will ask for one, and what to watch in 2027.
Scott Beckmen · October 22, 2026Eight companies moved their primary listings to the Texas Stock Exchange in October. Seventeen have moved their charters since 2024. Scott Beckmen on why a founder forming a company today should default to Texas, not Delaware — and how to keep the Delaware option open if a lead investor insists.
Scott Beckmen · October 21, 2026A $5 billion lithium project in Northeast Texas, a Railroad Commission seat on the November 3 ballot, and a 2027 Legislature that still has not said who owns the lithium. Scott Beckmen on what to watch at the agency that will decide how Texas develops the Smackover.
Scott Beckmen · October 21, 2026Capital is moving to Texas and the legal industry is still selling hours. Scott Beckmen on why Windward Counsel runs as an AI-native, fixed-fee firm — and why a company's certified record, from formation to exit, is the product.
Scott Beckmen · September 24, 2026A series on the Texas and federal developments that matter to operators, developers, investors, and landowners in the Smackover trend, the Permian, Oklahoma, and Utah — written by the partners who handle the work, with sources cited and no client information.
Smackover Lithium's September 8, 2026 preliminary economic assessment for the Franklin Project describes 1,196 brine leases across Hopkins, Franklin, and Titus counties and up to 70,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate. Here is what the numbers mean for the legal work ahead.
Scott BeckmenTexas has no statute or appellate decision assigning dissolved lithium in Smackover brine to the surface or mineral estate. Here is where the law stands after the Texas Supreme Court's produced-water decision and the 2025 session, and how projects are managing the gap by contract.
Rand MarshThe Railroad Commission's brine production rule took effect February 18, 2025. A practical guide for developers to the permit, the Class V spent-brine injection authority, financial assurance, and the issues the first applications are raising.
Rand MarshTexas assigned geothermal energy to the surface owner in 2023 and expanded the Railroad Commission's role. Two deep geothermal permits and thousands of shallow ones later, here are the title and permitting questions the statute left open.
Rand MarshNon-op funds raised significant capital in 2026 and public non-ops screened billions of dollars of deals in a single quarter. What sponsors and investors should get right in the fund documents, the PSA, and the JOA.
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