Our Practice

At MPH we regularly represent clients in a broad spectrum of practice areas.

These areas include general civil litigation, commercial and business litigation, oil and gas litigation and transactions, real estate transactions, business transactions, entity formations and related corporate issues, banking matters, and family law.

Please click on an area of practice for detailed description.

Our Clients

MPH's clients are as diverse as our practice areas.

We are located in downtown Fort Worth, but our reach is much broader. We represent clients with operations not only in Tarrant County and surrounding communities, but also throughout Texas and the United States. Our corporate clients include a wide range of financial institutions, energy companies, publicly traded companies and closely held businesses. MPH also represents and counsels governmental entities, as well as a large number of individuals and small to mid-sized businesses.

Representative Institutional Clients

Litigation

MPH's litigation practice focuses on a wide variety of commercial and business matters. Our litigation experience includes disputes involving oil and gas, banking, insurance and insurance products, construction, contracts, product liability, premises liability, personal injury, family law, employment matters and real estate. We regularly represent both plaintiffs and defendants throughout the States of Texas and Oklahoma and frequently serve as local counsel for matters pending in Tarrant County. We have been privileged to represent a vast array of clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses to individuals. Our attorneys have achieved success both at the trial and appellate levels and have a number of published appellate opinions to their names. We have also handled many arbitration matters. We pride ourselves on our responsiveness to our clients and our practical approach to litigation, placing an emphasis on obtaining favorable results in the most pragmatic and cost-effective fashion.

Banking

MPH's banking practice includes both transactions and litigation.

In terms of transactions, MPH assists lenders and borrowers in commercial lending matters, including construction and permanent loans, secured transactions, loan workouts, mortgages and foreclosures. This part of our practice includes the negotiation, review and drafting of promissory notes, deeds of trust, security agreements, guarantees and other related instruments.

From a litigation perspective, MPH's trial attorneys have represented banking clients in a variety of matters involving customers and third parties, including other banks. The nature of the matters we have handled runs the gamut and includes disputes involving trusts and estates, instruments, bonds, customer accounts and various types of personal and commercial loan transactions, including mortgage and automobile loans.

Oil & Gas

With offices in downtown Fort Worth, MPH is strategically located in the heart of the Barnett Shale natural gas play, thus offering both litigation and transactional clients a convenient local presence for representation in oil and gas matters. Although MPH's oil and gas practice has strong local ties, it also reaches beyond the boundaries of the Barnett Shale. MPH's attorneys, and particularly our named partners, have years of experience serving as counsel to both landowners and producers in the energy sector. Our oil and gas clients range from publicly traded energy companies with domestic and foreign operations to smaller independent operators, and from governmental entities or businesses with large land holdings to individual owners of small tracts.

A number of our attorneys are well versed in oil, gas and other energy law litigation and transactions. We believe MPH offers unique and beneficial insights gained by representing both operators and landowners in a variety of matters.

The firm's relevant experience includes:

• Litigation involving surface use and land issues, complex title disputes, pipeline issues, personal injuries (including matters arising under the Jones Act), reservoir issues, royalty disputes, contract disputes, lease interpretation, natural gas purchase agreements, alleged violations of joint operating agreements, exploration agreements, area of mutual interest agreements, balancing agreements, offshore and onshore drilling contracts and drilling rigs.
• Representation of governmental entities, homeowners' associations, businesses and individual landowners in the negotiation, interpretation and drafting of oil, gas and mineral leases.
• Negotiation and drafting of surface use agreements, pipeline easements and right-of-ways, and injection and/or disposal well agreements.
• Negotiation, interpretation and drafting of area of mutual interest agreements, joint operating agreements and like documents.
• Financing transactions involving oil and gas companies.

Real Estate

MPH can guide you through every aspect of your commercial real estate transactions. Our clients include both individuals and entities involved in the acquisition, development, financing and operation of all types of commercial properties, as well as purchasers of ranches and other substantial landholdings intended primarily for personal use. Our real estate experience includes:

Acquisition
Disposition
Development
Joint ventures
Financing
Brokerage
Leasing
Management

MPH's litigation practice also extends to real estate matters, including landlord-tenant disputes, forcible entry and detainer suits, surface use disputes involving oil and gas producers, trespass, water diversion and flood cases, judicial foreclosures and receiverships.

Business Transactions/Corporate

At MPH, in addition to litigating business disputes, we provide advice, consultation and assistance to our business clients in reviewing and drafting necessary documents involved in commercial transactions, including contracts, leases, purchase and sale agreements, financing agreements, buy-sell agreements, covenants not to compete, employment agreements and confidentiality agreements. We also review and analyze proposed corporate agreements and assist in employee relations.

There are various forms of business organizations available to those who wish to enter into a business venture. We will provide counsel in selecting and creating the proper business organization that will best meet your needs. We are experienced in preparing and filing all the required documents for a variety of business entities, including:

Sole proprietorships
Partnerships (including Limited Partnerships and Limited Liability Partnerships)
Corporations (including Subchapter S Corporations and C Corporations)
Limited Liability Companies

Family Law

The attorneys at MPH have the experience, personality, knowledge and ability to establish a relationship of trust with our clients, which can be particularly challenging in divorce litigation, custody disputes and other family law matters where the emotional and financial toll on the participants can be especially daunting. We offer our family law clients a personal and customized approach to resolving their cases, thus assuring that our representation and advice will be based on individual needs and not a "cookie-cutter" standard. We also strive to help our clients better understand the legal processes involved in their cases so they can assess their options and make the best choices for their families.

Many family law cases are resolved prior to trial. Our experience confirms that settlement often gives clients more control over the most important decisions regarding their children, property and lives, reduces the amount of conflict and saves valuable time and money. Thus, when possible and feasible, MPH will aggressively work towards reaching a fair settlement prior to trial through the use of alternative dispute resolution techniques such as mediation, negotiation, settlement conferences and the more recent concept of collaborative law. Should a case require a trial, MPH has the ability to assemble a customized team of trial attorneys and experts based on the particulars of a case. At MPH, we have experience with a wide range of family law matters, including:

Divorce
Custody / Visitation
Post-Divorce Property Division
Prior Order Modification and Enforcement
Child Support
Adoption / Step-Parent Adoption
Pre-Nuptial Agreements
Asset Partition
Asset Tracing / Valuation
Complex Property Settlement
Paternity
Grandparent Access