Denver Office of Snell & Wilmer Adds Counsel, Expands Oil and Gas Practice

DENVER - March 5, 2014 - PRLog -- Snell & Wilmer is pleased to announce that energy and real estate  attorney Paul Betzer has joined the firm’s Denver office as counsel.

“We are pleased to welcome Paul to Snell & Wilmer,” said Tim O’Neill, administrative partner of Snell & Wilmer’s Denver office.  “He adds depth to our oil and gas practice and brings unique experience and perspectives to the firm as he comes from the industry side of the energy world. We look forward to expanding our energy practice in Denver and Paul will play a key role in that process.”

Prior to joining Snell & Wilmer, Betzer was Phillips 66 Company’s Director of Property Tax, Real Estate, Right of Way and Claims for the Central & Eastern U.S. and Europe.  He was also the head of the Phillips 66 Global Real Estate Functional Excellence Team, and led some of Phillips 66 Company’s largest and most complex real estate and pipeline right of way transactions.  Betzer regularly advised Phillips 66 businesses and corporate management on all aspects of real estate and right of way project life cycle, including acquisitions and divestitures, pipeline system expansion, zoning, land use and entitlements, development, sale-leasebacks, land assemblage, financing, commercial leasing, taxation, permitting and condemnation.

Betzer was previously a supervising attorney in ConocoPhillips Company’s Global Real Estate & Facilities Services organization from 2007 to 2012, and managed the real estate portfolio segregation component of ConocoPhillips’ repositioning in 2012, which resulted in Phillips 66 Company’s debut as an advantaged downstream energy company.  Prior to joining ConocoPhillips, Betzer was an attorney with the Tulsa law firm of Norman, Wohlgemuth, Chandler & Dowdell, where his practice focused on all aspects of commercial litigation, energy law, real estate and land use.  Betzer is a decorated combat veteran of the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division, the storied “Big Red One,” and serves on the Oklahoma Bar Association’s Military Assistance Committee.

Betzer earned his Juris Doctor degree at the University of San Diego School of Law and his Bachelor's degree summa cum laude at Oral Roberts University. Betzer is admitted to the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, the United States District Court for Northern, Eastern and Western Districts of Oklahoma and the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He is not yet admitted in Colorado.