Energy and oil and gas attorney Derek José Anchondo joined Adams and Reese in 2012 as a Special Counsel in the firm’s Houston office and as a member of the Special Business Services practice group.
Practicing law since 1999, Derek has the unique perspective of having practiced law at several law firms throughout Texas and New York as well as having practiced in-house at two large public companies.
Derek’s oil & gas practice experience covers both domestic and international transactions, including upstream exploration and production activities, offshore drilling, the purchase or supply of crude oil or natural gas, joint operating agreements, the procurement of equipment or services, and engineering, procurement and construction.
His energy law experience covers complex domestic and international transactions, including mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, financing transactions, joint ventures, construction, international law related to maritime/offshore and shipping matters in the energy industry, United States regulatory filings, environmental regulatory compliance, and corporate compliance. He has experience in shipbuilding contracts, vessel repair and modification agreements, and supply and towing contracts for maritime vessels. He has also supervised and participated in high-level tax litigation in foreign jurisdictions.
Derek’s other representative experience includes:
- Served as chief counsel for one of the largest international offshore drilling contractors, where he was first responsible for overseeing all legal support for the company’s Western Hemisphere operations and was later responsible for overseeing global legal support for all of the company’s international marketing, contractual, business development, asset management and engineering activities. Through a span of six months in 2008, Derek worked and lived in Macaé, Brazil, where he was embedded in the operations group of the company.
- Served as counsel to the United States operations for one of the largest natural gas compression companies, offering products, services, solutions and manufacturing for compression, production and processing.
- Negotiated high-level commercial transactions with United States, international and national oil companies, and with oilfield services vendors and suppliers, in the upstream, midstream and downstream segments. Derek has served as counsel for operators, national oil companies, contractors, manufacturers, suppliers and vendors, pipeline companies and refiners.
- Experienced in international transactional matters throughout Latin America and Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and other parts of the world.
Derek is an advisory board member of the Institute for Energy Law, where he is also active in various committees. Derek is a frequent lecturer and author, and he has presented at numerous United States and international conferences on topics related to commercial contracts, contracting techniques and international law practice in the oil and gas sector. He is an active member of several legal and industry organizations.
Derek is a first-generation American with both of his parents successful physicians originally from Mexico. He is fluent in Spanish.
In his spare time, Derek enjoys running, snow skiing, sporting clays and most outdoor activities. He also likes reading, especially about history, traveling, and is a baseball enthusiast. Most of all, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two daughters.
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