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Professor Rogers moderates panel discussion featuring leading oil and gas general counsels


UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Professor Catherine A. Rogers, the Paul and Marjorie Price Faculty Scholar at Penn State Law​, moderated a discussion between general counsels of some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world on Feb. 17 in Houston at the 68th Annual Oil & Gas Conference, hosted by the Center for American and International Law’s Institute for Energy Law.

The discussion centered on how general counsels are tackling some of the ethical, substantive, and practical challenges that exist in today’s energy industry, and featured attorneys from Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Occidental Petroleum. The lawyers discussed some of the ethical and professional dilemmas they face while providing guidance to, and developing new legal strategies for, their multinational corporations.

The panelists were:

  • Randall M. Ebner, vice president and general counsel, Exxon Mobil Corp.;
  • Saamir Elshihabi, associate general counsel, Occidental Petroleum Corp.; and
  • R. Hewitt Pate, vice president and general counsel, Chevron Corp.

Topics included how general counsels manage complex relationships with governments in fluid and unstable political climates, changing legal strategies resulting from the global drop in oil prices, and innovative solutions for dealing in contexts with endemic corruption.

Such issues are critical in the ever-changing energy landscape, a focus of Penn State, where President Eric Barron announced his goal of creating an “Energy University.” In announcing this effort in November 2015, Barron observed that “humanity is facing tremendous challenges, change, and opportunity when it comes to the ways in which we create, understand, and interact with energy in the 21st century. Penn State is uniquely positioned to take the lead as society tackles these issues.” As part of this effort, Penn State Law is expanding its focus on energy law and policy, including critical issues related to oil and gas, water, and dispute resolution.

In addition to her position at Penn State Law, Rogers serves as professor of ethics, regulation & the rule of law and director of the Institute for Ethics, Regulation & the Rule of Law at Queen Mary University of London. She is co-chair of the ICCA-Queen Mary Task Force on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration and a reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law, the U.S. Law of International Commercial Arbitration. Rogers is the founder of Arbitrator Intelligence, an NGO that aims to increase fairness, transparency and accountability in the arbitrator selection process, and increased diversity in arbitrator appointments.

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