Dale CottinghamShareholder/Director
Dale Cottingham is a shareholder in the firm’s Oklahoma City office with more than 40 years of experience practicing in the areas energy and environmental law. He has extensive experience representing clients across a broad spectrum of oil and gas and water law issues, including, royalty class actions, leasing disputes, water permitting and acquisition agreements, pipeline condemnation, and related complex commercial litigation.
A frequent speaker and active member of his legal community, Dale has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Oklahoma City University School of Law since 1997, teaching Natural Resources Law, Water Law and Environmental Law. He regularly presents at Oklahoma Bar Association Continuing Legal Education Seminars, on specific topics including Oil and Gas Law, Water Law, Wind Energy and Environmental Law. He is a long-time member of the Oklahoma Mineral Lawyers Society and served as President from 2009-2010.
Dale has been selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers in oil and gas law, eminent domain and condemnation law, energy law, water law, and litigation – Environmental since 2011, in addition to being named Best Lawyers Oklahoma City Lawyer of the Year in the following practice areas: Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law (2023); Litigation – Environmental (2022). He has also been ranked by Chambers USA in Energy & Natural Resources and Environment since 2013, as well as Benchmark Litigation since 2015.
Dale has also been very involved in a variety of community organizations including Board of Deacons and Long Range Planning Committee, First Baptist Church, Oklahoma City, and Genesis Class, First United Methodist Church, Edmond.
*Crowe & Dunlevy has no input in the rating methodologies used by Best Lawyers, Chambers USA, or Benchmark Litigation publications.
Representative experience includes*:
- Recent Oil and Gas Royalty Class Actions and Related Matters
- McKnight v. Linn Operating, Inc., 10-CV-00300-R, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma
- Unit Petroleum Co. v. Panola, Case No. CJ-07-215, in the United States District Court for Latimer County, State of Oklahoma
- Cimarex Energy Company, Oklahoma Corporation Commission Application Cause CD No. 201103741
- Unit Petroleum Co., Oklahoma Corporation Commission Application Cause CD No. 201103821
- Range Petroleum Company, Oklahoma Corporation Commission Application Cause CD No. 201105113
- Oxy U.S.A. – Managed investigation and remediation of interstate oil pipeline spill
- Crawley Petroleum Corporation v. Chesapeake Operating, Inc., Case No. CJ-2010-25, in the District Court of Ellis County, State of Oklahoma, Gas Balancing
- Lime Rock Resources A, L.P. et al. v. Chaparral Energy, Inc., et al., North Texas Oil and Gas Lease Litigation
- ONEOK: Gas Storage Condemnation
- ONEOK: Corporation Commission proceedings to protect gas storage area
- Protest Chaparral Application for Permission to Conduct CO2 Flood, CD No. 201203768, Oklahoma Corporation Commission
- Chesapeake Exploration, LLC., et al. v. BP America Production Company, Case No. CIV-10-0519-HE, in the United States District Court for The Western District of Oklahoma, Resolution of arbitration regarding BP Purchase of Woodford Shale assets
- Krug v. Helmerich and Payne, Case No. CJ-98-06012, in the District Court In and For Tulsa County, State of Oklahoma, Gas Drainage case
*Past results afford no guarantee of future results. Every case is different and must be judged on its merits.
Dale’s most recent experience includes:
- Oil and gas royalty class actions
- Leasing disputes in the Barnett shale in Tarrant County, Texas
- Joint Operations disputes
- Field Wide Unitization
- CO2 Unitization
- Gas Balancing disputes
- Clarification of Spacing Orders
- Interstate Oil Pipeline Spills
- Challenge to Oklahoma’s laws prohibiting the export of water out of state
- Groundwater and Stream Water Permitting
Areas of Experience
- Remediation of Contaminated Sites
- Resolution of Pollution Complaints at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission
- Aquifer Pollution/Soil Pollution Lawsuit
- Public and Private Salt Water Disposal Permitting
- Co2 Operations/Unitization
- CO2 Purchase Agreements
- Soil Farming Permitting \
- Annular Injection of Drilling Mud
- Field Wide Unitization
- Disputes Involving Allowables
- All Phases of Gas Balancing Disputes
- Gas Measurement Disputes
- Oil & Gas Surface Damages Act Disputes
- Habendum Clause Disputes
- Royalty Disputes
- Pugh Clause Disputes
- Free Gas Clause Disputes
- Implied Covenant to Protect Against Drainage
- Implied Covenant to Market
- Implied Covenant to Develop
- Disputes over Operations
- Joint Operating Agreement Disputes
- All Phases of Joint Operating Agreements
- All Phases of COPAS Disputes
- All Phases of IADC Drilling Contract Disputes
- Protection of Gas Storage Units
- Permitting of Gas Storage Units
- Condemnation for Purposes of Gas Storage
- Gas Storage Agreements
- Drilling Rig Collapse Disputes
- Quiet Title Disputes
- Oil & Gas Revenue Accounting Disputes
- JIB Collection Disputes
- Pipeline Condemnation
- Stream Water Permitting
- Groundwater Permitting
- Large Scale Interbasin Water Transfers
- Out of State Water Transfers
- Water Permits for Mines/Quarries
- Water Management Plans for Mines/Quarries
- Water Sale Agreements
- Water Acquisition Agreements
- Acretion Disputes
- Avulsion Disputes
- River Course Changes
- Oklahoma Corporation Commission Practice
- Water Flood Unitization
- Earthquake Class Action
Southern Methodist University School of Law
Dallas, TX
J.D., 1982
Oklahoma Baptist University
Shawnee, OK
B.A., English with honors, 1979
- Oklahoma
- Texas
- U.S. Bankruptcy Courts for the Western, Northern and Eastern Districts of Oklahoma
- U.S. District Courts for the Western, Northern and Eastern Districts of Oklahoma
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- U.S. Supreme Court
- Oklahoma Bar Association
- Oklahoma City Mineral Lawyers Society
- President 2009-2010
- Texas Bar Association
- Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Ratings, AV Preeminent
- Ranked in Chambers USA in Energy & Natural Resources and Environment (2013-present)
- Listed in Benchmark Litigation for Oil & Gas and Energy (2015-2023)
- Listed in Best Lawyers as Lawyer of the Year, Oklahoma City
- Listed in Best Lawyers in Oil & Gas Law, Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law, Energy Law, Water Law and Litigation - Environemtal (2011-2024)
- “The Jurisdiction of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to Clarify its Spacing Orders and Any Fiduciary Duties Arising from Those Orders”, 82 Oklahoma Bar Association Journal 2028 (September 3, 2011)
- “Schedules of Use for Appropriated Streamwater”, 81 Oklahoma Bar Association Journal 1867 (September 4, 2010)
- “Compensation, Moral Claims, and the Decline of Riparian Rights.”, 31 Oklahoma City University Law Review 257 (2006)
- “Re-Entry of Existing Bore Holes and the Oklahoma Surface Damage Act”, OBA Mineral Law Section Seminar Materials (September 12, 1997)
- “The Right to Enter and Remediate under the Typical Oil and Gas Lease”, 67 Oklahoma Bar Association Journal 1087 (March 30, 1996)
- “Money Damages Versus Cleanup in Pollution Cases”, 48 Oklahoma Law Review 79 (1995)
- “An Abridged Primer on the Law of Public Nuisance”, 30 Tulsa Law Review 355 (1994)
- “Injuries to Land Resulting from Oil and Gas Operations: Measure of Damages”, 60 Oklahoma Bar Association Journal 3245 (December 30, 1989)
