Michael M. Stewart

Mr. Stewart is an experienced transactional and securities lawyer who has been involved in a wide variety of transactions representing privately-held companies, individual investors and groups and public companies in diverse industries, including financial institutions, energy, retail, services and healthcare.

Since 1978, Mr. Stewart has provided corporate, transaction and securities law services to numerous private and public exploration and production companies. In the public company arena, he represented Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas Corp  in its initial acquisition of Bogert Oil Company in 1990, its initial public offering in 1993, multiple subsequent debt and equity offerings and acquisitions until its ultimate sale for $2.3 billion in cash and stock to Dominion Resources in 2002.  During his career, Mr. Stewart has also served as principal corporate and securities counsel for Pre-Paid legal Services, Inc., Liberty Bancorp (until its sale to BancOne),  Harolds Stores Inc, Canaan Energy Corporation, GMX Resources and many other public companies that have been sold. He has also represented private energy companies in the establishment of private drilling funds and other investment vehicles. 

Mr. Stewart has advised in over 40 financial institution merger and acquisition transactions of all sizes, including advising Liberty Bancorp, Inc. in multiple acquisitions and in its sale to BancOne Corporation in 1997 for $550 million in stock, Amquest Financial in its sale to BancFirst for $100 million in stock in 1998 and numerous other nonpublic bank transactions.

Mr. Stewart has assisted public and private clients in multiple industries organized as corporations, limited liability companies or other entities in governance, equity owner matters and financings of all kinds including secured and unsecured debt, private equity, public equity and joint ventures.

He has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America for over 10 years in the classifications of Financial Institutions and Corporate Law and is ranked by Chambers USA as one of the number one corporate and mergers and acquisition lawyers in Oklahoma.

He has served on several not-for-profit boards, including Casady School, an independent private school, where he served as Board Chair from 2003-2005, and Omniplex Science Museum where he served as board chair in 1992-1993. He is also active on the Oklahoma General Corporation Act Committee of the Business Association Section of the Oklahoma Bar Association, which promotes corporate, partnership and LLC legislative initiatives to maintain a progressive legal environment for business entities in Oklahoma.