Practice Areas

Wagstaff, Alvis, Stubbeman, Seamster & Longacre, L.L.P. serves a wide variety of business, professional and individual clients and offers a broad spectrum of legal services. Initially, attorneys obtain experience in many areas of practice and later concentrate in selected areas of interest.

The firm's practice includes special emphasis in energy and utility representation, civil litigation, financial institution and regulatory representation, health law, real estate, oil and gas, insurance, bankruptcy, corporate/business, employment, family, governmental, probate and criminal law.

ENERGY In the mid-1920's, a principal in the firm founded what was later to become West Texas Utilities Company (WTU), and the firm has performed general utility-related legal work including operations, risk management, fuel procurement and regulatory work for WTU and other regulated utilities since that time. The firm has also expanded into areas of non-regulated utility business, including independent power production (exempt wholesale generation, as well as qualifying facility cogeneration projects). The firm has also provided representation in renewable energy projects, particularly wind farm facilities.

The areas in which the firm has provided legal services relating to energy projects include the preparation of partnership and stockholders' memoranda of understanding and agreements; energy sales agreements and the agreements ancillary thereto; engineering, procurement and construction contracts; purchase contracts for plant components; purchase contracts for existing facilities; operation and maintenance agreements; thermal energy sales agreements; real estate purchases; title issues; leases; easements and right-of-way acquisition relating to facilities; condemnation, fuel contracts; management agreements; wheeling and interconnection agreements; water supply agreements; confidentiality agreements; and thermal host arrangements. The firm has been involved in project financing, particularly to the extent such financing relates to plant construction, operation, and maintenance, and have reviewed and provided legal opinions regarding various agreements and other transactional documents executed as part of financial closing for various projects. The firm has represented its energy clients in claims, litigation, arbitration, mediation, and regulatory matters related to the projects, and has been involved in extensive negotiations related to projects that were not constructed or where involvement with projects were terminated.

In connection with the firm's representation of its energy clients, the firm has worked on projects and potential projects in many states and six foreign countries.

WIND ENERGY In recent years, the firm has provided legal services relating to the development, construction, financing, and operation of wind farm facilities (wind-powered electric generating facilities) in Texas, and has also assisted with construction contracts for the development and construction of a wind project in Colorado. One of the projects, the Trent Mesa Wind Energy project, is located twenty miles west of Abilene, Texas. The firm provided legal services, beginning with the procurement and development of the wind farm, through construction, operation, and financing of the Trent project. The firm has also assisted with four additional projects, two of which are in operation and two of which are currently in the development stages.

BANKING AND FINANCE The firm has engaged in a wide variety of transactions involving the lender-borrower relationship, including bank representation, commercial lending transactions, bank holding company organization, bank charter applications and federal regulatory representation. The firm routinely acts as counsel to lenders in transactions that involve substantial commercial and real estate loans, energy and construction loans, oil and gas loans, agricultural loans and asset based loans, and forms and regulations applicable to consumer loans. In addition, the firm provides representation involving financing transactions in which clients are borrowers and has represented numerous companies or lenders as Texas counsel.

Representation in major workouts and reorganizations, both in and out of bankruptcy, has historically been an active area of practice for the firm. The firm has extensive experience as counsel for lenders, secured and unsecured creditor's committees, trustees and debtors in bankruptcy proceedings. The firm has also represented lenders in various lender liability lawsuits.

After the numerous bank failures in the 1980's, the firm provided representation to the FDIC and RTC, as well as to other groups purchasing assets from failed banks and savings and loans.

LITIGATION AND RELATED AREAS The firm has several experienced trial lawyers who vigorously represent the firm's clients in a variety of litigation matters, including, but not limited to the following:

1. Personal Injury: Several of the firm's lawyers have active trial dockets involving personal injury claims. We represent plaintiffs, people who seek compensation for injuries received due to another person's negligence, product liability, medical malpractice, or other misconduct. We also represent several major insurance companies and corporations in defending against personal injury claims. We believe that representing both plaintiffs and defendants gives us a unique perspective to evaluate our clients' positions and to aggressively pursue or defend our clients' claims.

2. Professional Malpractice: Our trial lawyers have experience in both the prosecution and defense of legal and medical malpractice claims. We have sued and defended hospitals, nursing homes and doctors in cases claiming that their misconduct caused harm to their patients. We have also sued attorneys and represented attorneys in litigation claiming their misconduct.

3. Commercial Claims: The firm represents several major corporations, including utilities and construction companies, in commercial litigation involving contract disputes, collection matters, libel and slander suits, employment claims and any other commercial dispute or claim.

4. Alternate Dispute Resolution: The firm's trial lawyers have extensive experience in mediations and arbitrations to attempt settlement of claims without resorting to litigation. The firm includes credentialed mediators.

5. Administrative Proceedings: The firm provides representation in administrative proceedings to clients involved in actions with governmental agencies.

6. Appeals: As part of its active trial practice, the firm also handles appeals. The trial lawyers in the firm have prosecuted and defended cases at several levels of both state and federal appeals, including cases before the U.S. Fifth Circuit and the Texas Supreme Court.

BUSINESS ORGANIZATIONS AND REPRESENTATION The firm's practice includes the formation, representation and counseling of corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies and partnerships, and other entities in a wide variety of business situations including transactions and litigation.

WILLS, ESTATES AND PROBATE In addition to preparation of wills and trusts, the firm offers advice on many matters pertaining to estate planning, estate and trust administration and contested matters in the probate courts. Such advice includes planning for charitable gifts and other dispositions of assets during lifetime and upon death.

EMPLOYMENT Employment law covers a complex network of laws that controls how employers must treat employees, former employees and applicants for employment. Our firm has experience in interpreting and construing State and Federal statutes and case law in areas such as employment discrimination, affirmative action, sexual harassment, employee benefits, whistleblower litigation, wrongful discharge, employment contracts, the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, the Federal Employer's Liability Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and special laws governing municipal and federal employment. Included in our firm's representation of employers is the developing of policies and procedures and the training of management and supervisory staff with the objective of preventing employment law problems.

FAMILY LAW Our firm handles a full range of family law matters, including adoption, divorce, separation, premarital and marital property agreements, paternity, custody and support. We represent clients in family law litigation, as well as in negotiating settlements and participating in alternative dispute resolution, such as mediation. Our family law attorneys are experienced in providing thorough representation in simple and complex cases, while being responsive to clients in the resolution of what are frequently stressful situations. Our firm includes attorneys credentialed in family law mediation.

GOVERNMENTAL REPRESENTATION Our firm provides representation and serves as general counsel to a number of local governmental entities, including municipalities, school districts and local agencies. The firm provides the full spectrum of legal services to such entities, including representation in contracting, real estate and other property transactions, regulatory actions, employee policies and actions, client/citizen/student disputes and complaints, Open Meetings and Public Information issues and litigation. Firm attorneys also provide training to employees and management and assist in the development of risk management strategies.

CRIMINAL Our firm offers representation in criminal matters limited to misdemeanor and felonies (excluding serious felonies such as murder, robbery and rape) in both state and federal courts. Our firm offers experienced criminal trial counsel with over twenty-five years experience as both a criminal defense attorney and a criminal trial judge.

REAL ESTATE Our firm represents both commercial clients and individuals in all proceedings and transactions that deal with real property - land and the structures attached to it - including purchase and sale, construction, mortgages and foreclosures, leases, zoning, title examinations, quiet title actions, closings and management.

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