1/6/2012
The longest Marcellus Shale pipeline could be the one that stretches from the heart of Texas to Western Pennsylvania.
The Sadler Law Firm, a Houston-based firm, on December 1 became the latest energy firm in Texas to set up shop on the Marcellus Shale play front line. Their office is located in the Southpointe business park in Washington County, which is the center of Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry.
The office is the firm’s second and at present includes a team of ten lawyers, four law clerks, as well as one office manager. It had previously considered to open an office somewhere in Downtown Pittsburgh, but later changed its plans after they realized that most of their clients would be in suburban counties.
Partner Jacob Lenington, who heads the firm’s Appalachian area, will manage the new office. He is the only existing attorney from Sadler Law to move from Houston to Western Pennsylvania.
According to the managing partner of the firm, Randall K. Sadler, the rest of the attorneys are new to the firm, which included recent law school graduates from Ohio, West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania.
Mr. Sadler stated that the firm expects to expand the office to around thirty or forty attorneys by the end of 2012. He also said, however, that the process of establishing a solid presence in Western Pennsylvania is a “long-term development” that might take “ten years or more.” He also said that the firm made a decision to set up shop in Western Pennsylvania because it has thirty years of experience in servicing the upstream gas and oil market.
