Reed Smith LLP today announced the addition of Gary C. Johnson as a partner in the firm’s Energy & Natural Resources Industry Group. Johnson will work from the firm’s Houston office. He was formerly a partner and Corporate Practice Group Leader at Burleson LLP.

“Gary is a seasoned Texas and Pennsylvania oil and gas transactional lawyer, with some 35 years of experience, who is well-known in the market for his comprehensive experience in energy exploration and production matters,” said Kyri Evagora, Leader of the firm’s ENR Industry Group. “His client and practice interests span the Lone Star State and extend into the Marcellus Shale, where a number of his clients have interests. This is a natural fit with Reed Smith, which has a leading practice in the Marcellus.”

Gary is Board Certified in Oil, Gas and Mineral Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He has extensive experience drafting and negotiating virtually every instrument used in the acquisition, exploration, production, marketing and divestiture of crude oil and natural gas, and other hydrocarbons; and the formation, operation, liquidation and restructuring of oil and gas companies.

A 1976 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Johnson is admitted to practice in Texas, the District of Columbia and Pennsylvania.

“Reed Smith provides an international platform which will facilitate the growth of my practice and offers my clients an expanded range of capabilities required in today’s complex global economy,” said Gary. “The firm’s collaborative culture and team approach to client service is aligned with my own. I have worked alongside attorneys at the firm and look forward to helping build out an elite energy team in Houston to match the firm’s deep bench in its energy and natural resources practice around the world.”

Before joining Burleson in 2010, Johnson was at Shore Freeman Mills PC. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President & General Counsel of Citation Oil & Gas Corp. in Houston for 13 years. He also previously served as general counsel and associate general counsel with two energy exploration and production companies and was in private practice in Texas and Washington, D.C.

“Gary’s arrival is another important milestone for our Houston office which has grown in just over one year to 38 attorneys,” said David Thompson, Reed Smith’s Houston Integration Partner. “We have gotten off to a tremendous start. Since we opened in Houston, our lawyers have done work for 180 different firm clients, including many of the world’s leading energy, financial services and life sciences companies. We are on pace to have a great 2014.”

Johnson is the second prominent lawyer to join Reed Smith’s Energy & Natural Resources Industry Group this month. Michael Yuffee, former head of Fried Frank’s Energy Practice, became a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office two weeks ago.

The ENR Industry Group combines the regulatory, transactional and litigation capabilities of its members who are resident in all of the firm’s offices in the UK, the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Attorneys in the group work with businesses engaged in the extraction, production, distribution and financing of energy and natural resources projects anywhere in the world.

The combined experience of this Group is a resource for developers, producers, manufacturers, traders, financiers and investors, insurers and transporters in the sector, whether they are involved in traditional resources – such as oil, gas, nuclear, metals or minerals – or in renewable and clean energy.

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