Law360 Features Comments from John Melko on Why Decreasing Oil Prices Have Increased Legal Work

Law360 covered how decreasing oil prices have caused producers across the Eagle Ford Shale and other major oil and gas plays to cut costs and scale back operations. Consequently, lawyers are being presented with new opportunities across many practice areas. Transactional attorneys are advising clients to cut their rates to help recover from the drop in oil prices, and insolvency and restructuring attorneys are guiding companies that need to revamp their balance sheets and renegotiate loan terms to stay afloat.

Gardere Partner John P. Melko, chair of the Firm's Financial Restructuring and Reorganization Practice Group, told the publication: "What we have seen at this stage is more of what continues to be a cooperative effort between service providers and the exploration and production companies to try to rework the terms of existing contracts."