About Our Firm
Davis Gerald & Cremer is an acclaimed Texas energy law firm with offices in Midland and Austin, Texas.
Born in the Permian Basin and steeped in the centerpiece of Texas’s oil and gas economy, Davis Gerald & Cremer attorneys handle bet-the-company litigation and appeals, manage complex transactions, analyze oil-and-gas title, provide experienced regulatory counsel, and serve a broad and diverse array of clients across and beyond the State of Texas.
Practice Areas
Trial & Appellate
DGC’s trial and appellate lawyers prosecute and defend high-stakes and complex disputes from pre-litigation to the Texas Supreme Court.
Transactional & Title
DGC’s business and title lawyers manage complex transactions, counsel businesses, and analyze oil-and-gas title.
Oil & Gas Regulatory
DGC’s regulatory group advises and represents oil-and-gas clients in matters before the Texas Railroad Commission.
Featured Attorney
Brooke Brewer
Brooke Brewer is a litigation associate that works to navigate complex legal disputes within the energy sector, representing clients in a wide variety of oil and gas related issues. Brooke is experienced in legal research and writing, crafting persuasive arguments to ensure her clients’ interests are vigorously protected in court as she strives to deliver effective results in a rapidly evolving legal landscape.
Featured Attorney
Cameron Hekkert
Cameron is a first-year associate in the firm’s oil and gas litigation section. Cameron spent her summers during law school with DGC and is excited to be back with the firm to continue litigating oil and gas cases.
Featured Attorney
John A. “Jad” Davis
Jad Davis is an oil and gas trial lawyer. He is called on and is at home trying big, industry-shaping cases in small towns throughout the Permian Basin and then defending those cases at the appellate level.
Featured Attorney
Julie L. Griffis
Julie Griffis is a Texas and New Mexico attorney who litigates oil and gas and business disputes, including about lease and deed interpretation, breach of contract, Natural Resources Code violations, and financial fraud and internal investigations. Julie practices at both the trial court and appellate level and works with her clients to identify and meet their needs and goals in litigation.
Featured Attorney
Matt Hadcock
Matt represents clients in the energy sector (upstream, midstream, downstream, renewables and oil field services), as well as in traditional real estate and retail service sectors. Matt primarily focuses on advising public and private companies, individuals, boards of directors and executives with general corporate governance, entity formations and commercial agreements. Matt has extensive experience with traditional domestic oil and gas land titles and transactions. Prior to joining DGC, Matt was General Counsel and Vice President of Land for a private equity backed exploration and production company. Matt began his career as a petroleum landman in his final year of law school in 2006.
Featured Attorney
Robert G. Hargrove
Rob Hargrove is an oil and gas litigator, representing mostly operators in cases before the Railroad Commission of Texas (in its Hearings Division) and before Texas trial and appellate courts around the state. While he has a deep academic interest in the subject matter, frequently speaking on oil and gas regulatory and legal issues at major Texas CLE programs, he tries to bring a practical approach to the disputes his clients face, based on years of experience. Rob is board certified in Oil, Gas and Mineral Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is currently the Secretary of the Oil, Gas and Energy Resources Law Section of the State Bar of Texas.
Featured Attorney
Ana Maria Marsland
For forty years, Ana Maria Marsland has worked with oil and gas operators and their regulators, particularly the Railroad Commission of Texas, helping them navigate the Texas oil and gas regulatory landscape. She has encyclopedic knowledge of Texas oil and gas regulation, and she is well known and respected by Railroad Commission personnel. She also regularly assists clients in their dealings with the General Land Office. She helps clients understand and comply with applicable regulations in a manner that is both effective and efficient, with a deep understanding of the bigger picture, that is, how regulatory compliance affects their operations generally, from pre-drilling and permitting considerations through plugging, and everything in between.
Featured Attorney
Mike MacEwan
Mike MacEwan is an associate attorney in the firm’s Midland office. Mike graduated Cum Laude from Texas Tech School of Law in May 2024. In law school, Mike served on the executive board for the Energy Law Interest Group and the Journal of the Energy Law Practitioner. Mike’s practice focuses on energy transactions and oil and gas title examination.
Featured Attorney
Sam Patranella
Sam Patranella is an accomplished transactional lawyer, executive, and entrepreneur. With nearly twenty years in the oil and gas industry and experience in over $5 billion worth of transactions, Sam is uniquely positioned to aid in his client’s needs. Sam is head of the firm’s Transaction & Title practice.
Featured Attorney
Katherine Petroski
Midland-based Katie Petroski’s practice focuses on oil and gas commercial litigation and transactions. She has been involved in numerous successful trials and handles all aspects of litigation, from pre-suit investigations to upholding successful trial verdicts on appeal. Katie uses her litigation experience to bring a unique perspective to oil and gas transactions, including frequent negotiations of master service agreements. She is licensed in Texas and New Mexico.
Featured Attorney
Shannon H. Ratliff
Shannon Ratliff is an award-winning trial lawyer with over forty years of experience as a trial lawyer in bet-the-company cases for Fortune 50 companies. He recently received the Texas ABOTA Trial Lawyer of the Year award at its 2024 Santa Fe meeting. He has a wide array of trial experiences in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado and was the initial recipient of the Institute for Energy’s Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Energy Litigation in 2005 and received The Ron D. Secrest Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award from the Texas Bar Foundation. In addition to his work as a trial lawyer, he has also argued over 50 cases before the Texas Supreme Court and has argued numerous appeals before the 5th Circuit.
Featured Attorney
Marc L. Skeen
Marc Skeen has been an oil and gas lawyer for over 45 years, focusing his practice on oil and gas transactional work as well as litigation evaluation and litigation avoidance counseling. Marc has previously served as Deputy General Counsel for both Pioneer Natural Resources, Inc. and for Parsley Energy Company, being in charge of litigation management and legal department E&P transactional work for both companies.
Featured Attorney
Max Canon
Max Canon is an associate in the Midland office, licensed in both Texas and New Mexico, whose practice focuses on the acquisition and disposition of oil and gas assets, title examination, and corporate matters. Max represents public and private companies in traditional purchase and sale agreements, farmout agreements, saltwater disposal agreements, surface use agreements, title opinions, and other energy related contracts.
Featured Attorney
William J. Clark
William Clark is an oil and gas title attorney licensed in Texas and New Mexico. His practice centers around rendering title opinions covering complex horizontal development projects in the Permian Basin and extends into related areas of practice such as conducting title due diligence and transactional drafting for oil and gas asset purchases and sales.
Featured Attorney
Ty Myers
Ty Myers is a Texas and New Mexico attorney whose practice is focused on title examination and transactional matters related to fee, state and federal lands. Ty has counseled his clients in relation to projects of all sizes, ranging from complex allocation-based drilling blocks to traditional pooled units and everything in between.
News & Insights
Texas Supreme Court held in favor of DGC client COG Operating LLC (now ConocoPhillips) in Clifton v. Johnson
On March 13, the Texas Supreme Court held in favor of DGC client COG Operating LLC (now ConocoPhillips) in Clifton v. Johnson. A copy of the opinion is available: Opinion. The supreme court reversed the court of appeals and reinstated the trial court’s final judgment...
Daniel Harper Rejoins DGC
Davis, Gerald & Cremer (DGC) is pleased to announce today the return of Daniel Harper, where he joins the firm’s Trial and Appellate Litigation Team. As Daniel returns to DGC, DGC Managing Shareholder Jacob Davidson commented, “Daniel’s expertise in complex...
DGC Client Prevails in Commercial Arbitration
A Dallas County district court recently confirmed a $2.1 Million commercial arbitration award in favor of DGC client GC Royalty and affiliates against Golden Franchising Corp. After the evidentiary hearing in which GC Royalty was both prosecuting and defending against...
DGC Client Prevails in Texas Supreme Court
On May 9, 2025, the Supreme Court of Texas sided with DGC client Roxo Energy Company in a high-dollar dispute over the signing of an oil-and-gas lease and mineral-sales agreement. In the case, the plaintiff alleged that Roxo had made oral promises that were...