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Karyl McCurdy Lawson
Summary:
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Formerly Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Freeport LNG L.P., responsible for coordinating legal services regarding the construction, financing and commercial agreements for an LNG regasification plant.
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Served as General Counsel of CMS Marketing, Trading and Services Company, a natural gas, LNG, natural gas liquids and power energy trading division of CMS Energy, in charge of the legal, contract administration and confirmations departments. Responsible for the transactional, regulatory and litigation issues regarding trading and marketing, including sales/purchase, credit, pipeline transportation, gathering and storage agreements, asset sales, corporate governance and compliance, general corporate, internal investigations and FERC, DOE, NEB and CFTC matters.
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Over a 21 year career with MidCon Corp., a natural gas company, held several positions, including Assistant General Counsel for MidCon Marketing Company, and Director of Government Relations, and Senior Counsel for MidCon Corp. Responsibilities included transactional and regulatory matters for the natural gas trading and marketing company, head of government relations for the parent company during the deregulation of natural gas and senior counsel for the interstate natural gas pipeline company before the FERC.
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Initiated and led the development of the first model natural gas trading agreement, which was adopted by the Gas Industry Standards Board (now North American Energy Standards Board) in 1996 and became the industry standard contract.
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Founder of the Women’s Energy Network of Houston, www.wenhouston.org, which educates and mentors women in energy and has over 500 members. -
Formerly Legislative Assistant for U.S. Senator Alan Dixon, responsible for general corporate and tax matters.
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Holds Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School and Bachelor of Arts from Bradley University, summa cum laude.
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Admitted to practice in Texas.
Full Bio:
With over 29 years of experience working in house with Fortune 500 and private energy companies, Karyl has provided legal counsel on a wide variety of commercial, regulatory, litigation, government relations, and legislative matters for energy marketing and trading companies, an LNG company, interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline companies, and natural gas utilities. Karyl has significant experience in identifying and resolving legal issues in a broad range of areas, including negotiation and drafting commercial agreements, complex regulation, corporate governance and compliance, litigation management, employment law, credit and risk management. Karyl was also honored as one of the “Top 50 Women in Energy in the World” in 2001 by Commodities Now and Accenture.
Karyl practiced for 21 years with MidCon Corp, a Fortune 500 natural gas company and its predecessor Peoples Gas Light & Coke, a natural gas utility in Chicago, Illinois, through a succession of ownerships including Occidental Petroleum and KN Energy. She represented the utility and interstate pipelines before the Illinois Commerce Commission and the FERC and won a landmark FERC case where competition was introduced in the natural gas industry by offering sales to customers not connected to the pipeline system. She was selected by MidCon to participate in the Congressional Assistant Program in Washington, D.C. and served as a Legislative Assistant for U.S. Senator Alan Dixon (D-Ill.) on general corporate and tax issues. She was promoted to Director of Government Relations for federal and state issues and head of MidCon’s Washington D.C. office, where she coordinated the company’s position on the deregulation of natural gas.
MidCon transferred Karyl to be the Assistant General Counsel for its natural gas marketing company in Houston, Texas, where she crafted sales, supply, service, transportation, gathering and storage contracts and procedures that helped prevent any litigation against the company for the 12 years she represented the company. She also successfully overturned a number of FERC restrictions on the marketing company. Karyl initiated and led the development of the first model natural gas trading contract, which the Gas Industry Standards Board adopted as its standard contract. This contract is now utilized for approximately 90% of all gas traded in the U.S.
When MidCon sold the marketing company, Karyl became the General Counsel of CMS Marketing, Services and Trading Company, where she was responsible for the legal, contract administration and confirmations departments for the trading of natural gas, power, LNG and NGLs and developed contracts, systems and procedures to handle a 500% increase in revenues. She also coordinated internal investigations and litigation.
When CMS moved its trading company to Michigan, Karyl provided legal support for Duke Energy for the restructuring and downsizing of Duke Energy Trading and Marketing through power and gas asset sales of over $100 million.
Karyl became the Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Freeport LNG, L.P. where she helped coordinate the legal issues surrounding a bond financing and construction of an LNG regasification plant.
Recognized as a national expert on natural gas contracts, Karyl most recently has consulted as an expert witness in natural gas contract litigation for Fortune 100 energy companies.
Karyl earned her law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and her undergraduate degree from Bradley University.
Phone Number: 713.331.0491
Email: klawson@outsourcegc.com
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